Vision 2021
by Kevin Allen
January 10, 2021 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1, Ecclesiastes 3:11-17, Ephesians 4, Acts 8:1, Acts 8:4, Acts 2:46-47, Acts 1:8, Matthew 5, Matthew 6, Matthew 7, Matthew 25

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--vision-2021
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Today is the day to cast vision. 2021 is here. I barely saw 20 20. Came at me fast. You guys can make your way to your seats. Many days I seem like I was just trying to catch my breath. So how do I see 2021? I'm drawn back to the basics, the fundamental truths that have allowed me to allow this church to get to where we are today. I believe if the apostles and the prophets saw the future in their day of chaos and change, that we can see the future today also. I have seen the future. It looks like Jesus, and in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's what I see. I see him, and ladies and gentlemen, as long as we can keep our eyes on him, we will make it through. We will make it through.

One year ago we were here in this room, still smelling the new paint and the new carpet. We were watching as new families were showing up and people who were coming to see our building and were worshiping with us. From the first Sunday in January to the dedication weekend in March of that year, we were averaging 440 in attendance. We were on pace. We were growing. Excitement was in the air, but leadership was stretched thin. And I believe that if we would have continued on that pace, burnout was just around the corner. I believe that God gives us seasons and time for a reason. Now do not misunderstand me. I'm not saying that coven 19 hit the world and we're dealing with it simply because Center Point needed a minute to catch its breath, but I will tell you, for the first few weeks it was nice, from a leadership standpoint, to step back for a minute. But we face a new season in a new time.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 1 says, for everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. Skipping down to verse 11: he hath made everything beautiful in his time. Also he hath set the world in their hearts, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life. And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all of his labor, it is the gift of God. I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it, and God doeth it that men should fear before him. That which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and God requireth that which is past. And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that the wickedness was there, and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. And I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.

I believe that God gives us seasons and times for a reason. Often we don't understand as we go through the full meaning and purpose behind what we experience in our life. I feel it's important now more than ever that we make some changes and structure ourselves to the mission that God has for us here in Murfreesboro and in Middle Tennessee. At the beginning of 2018, I felt a strong burden to lead this church in a discipleship charge. I had just gotten back, just a few months before that, at the very end of 2017, from being out on the mission field, and that opportunity had afforded me the chance to spend a couple of weeks with a man that I love and respect, and I think many of you in the room recognize his name: Brother Stan Gleason. And in coming back for him and feeling his burden and passion for discipleship, it ignited something in me. And through prayer and following directions from how God's Spirit was moving on me, I began to talk about that burden and and tell the church that I felt like we were on track to try to reach our city like never before through discipleship. But in being transparent, in 2018 we were in the very heart of this building program, and inadvertently discipleship got pushed into the background.

Now why am I talking about what we did in 2018? Because God has brought this back to my mind in such a strong way in the last few months. Center Point is an apostolic church. We grow apostolic families. That is who we are. That is our mission. It is a God-given mandate to us, and we are obedient to that. We're a apostolic church. We grow apostolic families, and ladies and gentlemen, we do that through discipleship. And in order to fulfill that mission, in order to grow the apostolic family, we must become radical about discipleship. It has to be a part of everything that we do in this church.

You know what makes Center Point different from the other churches in Murfreesboro? It's not about the building. It's not about the seats of the carpet. It's not about the music. It's not about the Spirit moving necessarily in this place. What makes us different is our view of salvation, our view of the Godhead, our view of baptism, our view of the importance of discipleship over the number of bottoms and seats on every Sunday. Yes, numbers matter, but the number of individuals that are maturing their relationship far outweighs the number of people I can pack in this building. Because at the end of the day, we're not in the entertainment business. At the end of the day, we're not about housing people in a room. At the end of the day, we are about taking the life-changing message of Jesus Christ, and we are to spend time taking that to the world around us, not only just talking about it, but being able to break down the word of God so individuals can come into a relationship with the mighty God. You and I know that is our mission. How many people, and I said this in 2018 and I say it again today, how many people are we effectively discipling seven days a week? Church has to be more than just a
 Sunday thing. Church has to be more than just a Sunday thing. If all we are as a church is what we do for a few hours on Sunday morning here, we are failing miserably at the mission that Jesus Christ himself laid out. The mandate that is in these holy Scriptures is not about what we do when we gather one day a week, but it's what we do seven days a week that matters.

In the first century church, the expectation and the experience was that all born again believers were involved in ministry. All born-again believers were involved in ministry. Originally the word minister was a verb, not a noun. It had action to it. It was something that we did. It wasn't something that we were. The five-fold ministry in Ephesians chapter 4 provided leadership for the church, but ministry was shared by all. It wasn't only on the the the soul, the shoulders of the apostles. It wasn't only on the preachers. It wasn't only on the uh, on certain individuals, but it was on every born-again Christian. They understood their responsibility, yes, their obligation, to be involved in ministry.

What I'm afraid, and I mean I'm really fearful in my heart, is that people have become content to just experience ministry and not be in ministry. I'm afraid the consumerism that surrounds us in our world has made its way into the church, and we are comfortable being able to compartmentalize where church and ministry goes with the rest of our life activities. The reason I say that, ladies and gentlemen, is because this past week's events, if they would have happened 20 years ago, there would not be a seat in this sanctuary available. It would have rocked us at our very core, causing us to go back to God and make sure that we are living in a right way. But I'm afraid that we get lost in the noise of the day and we miss out on the fact that God has still has a purpose and a plan, that God is still operating in the background all around us every day. And we have gotten so used to constant changing events that we're missing that prophecy is being fulfilled every day all around us. And I'm afraid that there's going to be a whole lot of individuals who claim to have a relationship with Jesus Christ who are going to wake up one day not realizing that the church has been raptured out of this place.

It bothers me. It bothers me that there are so many individuals who are allowing fear to dictate their life. Don't misunderstand me. I know there's a lot we're dealing with today, and there's a lot we go through and we have to process. But I'm going to tell you right now, it bothers me at my core that there are individuals who are so haphazard with their church attendance that any little thing that pops up in their way is a reason, an excuse, to not be a part and be in the house of God. I'm sorry. They're not living the way they're supposed to be living. There are some legitimate reasons why one misses the house of God. There are some legitimate reasons in today's climate, given what we're dealing with in this pandemic, for some individuals to be cautious in what they do. But there's a whole bunch of people who are just using this for a reason to do whatever it is their flesh desires. And I promise you, you are missing out on the most important time of your life. It's not time to be playing games with God. This is the last days we're living in, and you're going to be lulled to sleep and you're going to miss out. Having said on a church pew, listening to truth be preached to you your entire life — I'm sorry, I run into you in town, I see your post on social media, you managed to make it everywhere else but the house of God. There's something wrong with that.

There's something wrong when you send your kids to preschool but you won't bring them to kids church. There's something wrong when you can make it to Target and Walmart and you can make it everywhere else, but you will not darken the doors of the house of God. I'm sorry, something's wrong with that. Maybe you don't like me, and maybe this is when you renounce your membership at this church, but you do so by a man who's prayed and fasted and made sure my heart was right. And I couldn't live with myself if I didn't tell you: you're in a very dangerous place.

I never dreamed we'd be dealing with what we're dealing with right now, and inside me there's such an urgency. I haven't slept well this week — having slept well, I'm getting two or three hours a night, that's about all I get. God is just stirring inside of me that we are in our last days, that he's making this last push, that the revival is fixing to come. And I look around and ask myself, oh where's everybody at? Am I the only one that feels this way? Am I the only one that is sensing in the Spirit that God is lining things up for his return? Have we become so comfortable in the world that we live in that we don't long for his return? Oh, we sing the songs, "I'll stand in your presence and sing hallelujah until you come again." But where's it at, child of God? Where is that cry that says, "come quickly"? Where is it at? I don't know where you are, but as I was watching things unfold this past week, as tears were coming down my face, as I was trying to get my head around what I was witnessing happening in our great country, there was something inside of me that said, oh God, please come quickly, please come quickly. I don't want to see what's happening here. I don't like what I'm seeing. But I said that because I'm in a place where I know, Lord, I'm trying to live my best life. And I'm afraid some of you are so close to standing on the edge between being in the church and being in the world that you're not comfortable with praying a prayer that says, come quickly, Lord. It's making me nervous. Am I doing all I can to tell everybody? Look, this is no time to play around. This isn't time for you to be be mingling with a few things over here and for you to be trying to say, well, I don't think this is bad or that's bad, and you're getting caught down in the weeds of stuff. I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not going to live my life on the edge of what is or is not right. I'm going to get way over on what I know is right. Listen to me, apostolic: this is not time to be flirting around with a bunch of, is this going to be a heaven or hell issue in your life? I'm not, I'm not living my life like that anymore. I want some stuff settled. I don't want there to be any shaky ground anymore. I don't want there to be a possibility where I might teeter off the edge. It's not worth it. I'm too close. I've come too far. I've seen too much. I'm not going to be near their heads. I'm way far away from it. Whatever God that you have ever mentioned is important, I'm going to live it in my life.

But even now in this room, I'm being dismissed: I will only ever preach you what this book says. I told you that in just a few weeks it'll be seven years since you elected me to be your pastor, and I told you I'll only ever preach you what's in this book. I won't preach you my opinion, because my opinions are relevant. I won't preach you my preference, because my preference won't get you into heaven. But I will preach you that book. I'll preach you that book. I'll preach you the words. I'll preach you what he says that he desires for us to do. I'll preach you until my conscience is clear so that I can sleep at night. Even if I don't want to preach it, I will preach it, because he has required it.

We have to get radical about disciplining people. We have to be radical about having dedicated prayer lives. We have to be radical about having regular times of fasting in our life, not when pastor calls it, but something inside of you that sets aside a time every now and then that's just on your own because you desire to be closer to God. We have to live in such a way that we are doing these things on our own, not always being told we have to do it across a pulpit. We have to be involved in ministry, all of us. Jesus did not intend for his command to go and make disciples of all nations to be fulfilled only by the called minister. He didn't intend for it to be only for the professional clergy. This, ladies and gentlemen, was a commission for every believer to embrace.

You see this unfold in Acts the eighth chapter, when things went out of their control following the death of Stephen. Persecution came against the church. We see this in Acts chapter eight verse number one: now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the region. Oh, that means all. That means everybody, not just a select few, were scattered. It appears that it was the persecution that served as the catalyst. See, I don't know full well all that's taking place, but I do understand enough to under, to to be aware of the times, that what's taking place in our country is leading to that great end time revival that God has talked about in his word. Now, I don't like what's going on. I'm not in favor of what's taking place. There's a lot of stuff that makes me sad. There's a lot of stuff that that has been put out there that I'm not happy about. But at the end of the day, I go back to what I know to be true, and that is this: that Jesus Christ is still alive. He's still on the throne. He's still in charge. And he knows who's in the White House, and he knows who's in control of every political party. So I have decided I'm not worried about those things. I'm going to go back to the book and understand what I am called to do is to disciple people. And I've decided I'm going to spend my time and my effort and what last days I have focusing on that, because I can't control a lot of stuff. But I can't control who I talk to. I can't control who I tell about him. I can't control those things, and I know God desires to do that.

The narrative that was there in Acts 8 states that the apostles remained at Jerusalem. If you put that verse back up there again for me, Debbie, you'll see the last three words says accept the apostles. Is anybody confused about who remained? The apostles. Everybody else left. What took place was God igniting that first revival to push people out of Jerusalem. It was the others besides the apostles who left. Saul continued to persecute the Christians, which further dispersed them to far-reaching areas. Then verse 4 makes a startling statement: therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.

Now I'm going to ask you, here's your test for today. Verse number 1 told you who pushed out, who left that city. Everybody. But who, verse number 4 says, minus the apostles, everybody did what? Who preached? It wasn't the apostles, because they're still in Jerusalem. It was everybody else. I'm here to tell you that you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you and you, every one of you, is to be a preacher. Every one of you is to be a teacher. Every one of you is to be a part of the ministry of Jesus Christ. The privilege and the responsibility of preaching, or communicating is maybe a word you can better digest today, the word does not belong only in the five-fold ministry, but everybody, every saint, everybody who's coming, everybody whose life has been filled with his Spirit, is called to be a minister, to take what you hear on a Sunday and from from Bible studies and to carry it outside the four walls of this worship center and you tell it to anybody who will listen to you. I believe that too much ministry is being do being done by the church to the church. This isn't the whole gospel to the whole church. This is the whole gospel to the whole world. Somewhere we've gotten confused. Somewhere we think, well, as long as I'm here, you know, and I'm and I'm I'm digesting those messages myself and I'm sitting here on the pew and I'm I'm giving my offering, my ties, that I'm in good shape. And if that's your attitude, you're missing the Great Commission. You miss what Jesus Christ was trying to teach them and show them, that you got to get outside of yourself. Because if we stay here, we get the mindset of elitism. It slips in on us and we start thinking we're better than somebody else. And we're not better than anybody else. We just happen to be be blood bought, redeemed, purchased. But it wasn't to just be here and experience ourselves, but it was a take what we have here out there, to get outside these church walls and do something with it.

God blesses us, and we've been abundantly blessed. Every one of us have been abundantly blessed. But those blessings sometimes we just, we just keep it into ourself. Could he be, he's equipping you and giving you everything you need to take and push further the gospel that he put inside of you? Don't be content to just, to just have have your little bit over there and said, and think, well, I've got my ticket punched, I'm going to heaven. In the beginning this was not so.

I'm asking you to think on me for just a minute. What would happen in our church if everyone did the work of the ministry? If everyone did the work of the ministry, that the majority of ministry occurred outside the walls of this sanctuary. Oh, I love when we have a great church. Don't get me wrong. Don't misunderstand me. I love when we have, I love when the praise team leads us in worship, and I love when his Spirit moves. I love tongues and interpretation. I love all that stuff. I love we have the great altar times that are up here, and it just does my heart good. But it has to be more than this, ladies and gentlemen. It has to be more than this. Because the the three, the four, the 500 of us together in here sometimes, what is that compared to that city out there? What is that compared to that city that's sitting out there? How many people right now, while you're sitting in the presence of God as we've worshipped this morning, how many people have driven by the front of this building out there that are hurting, that are broken, that are addicted, that are in abusive relationships? How many people driving by out there need what we have inside these walls?

I can't just be in here shouting a little bit, worshiping God, and being content that everything's okay, when literally the world outside these walls is burning down all around us. Is there not something inside of us, something that says, I have to do something with the knowledge I have? We cannot put all of our eggs in the basket of Sunday. We can't. According to Acts 2 verse so: continuing daily and with one accord in the temple. How often do they do this? Daily. Say that when we say it: daily. Breaking bread from house to house, the ather food, the gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to the church. Do you know why he had it daily? Because they were working in ministry daily. Why did it happen daily? Because daily they were about the kingdom business. It wasn't just when we get to Sunday, boy, we're going to have a good time. We're going to shout that place down. We're going to swing on the rafters and bite the pews. We're going, man, they're going to throw down. Pastors going to preach the message. The praise team, the choirs are going to sing. We're going to buck and snort and rip and do all. Daily. Daily.

What's happened to us that we we don't understand that we're supposed to be doing this daily? Because if we'll get to the business of doing daily ministry, God will come along and daily add to the church. But what I'm afraid of is we have to spend so much time pumping you up, so much time in that Sunday service getting you ramped back up because of all the junk that you managed to get weaved into your life Monday through Saturday. We got to come in here and it takes a little while. You can watch it from my vantage point. You can watch the presence of God move in this place. You can watch it. There's always your early adapters, right? Come here, Jalen. I love Jalen. Jalen's always an early adapter. First core, Jalen, boom, the presence of God is here. Jalen is worshiping. Jalen's an early adapter, and I love it, because if it wasn't for some early adapters, some of y'all wouldn't know God was even here.

So we got early adapters, and we got some of those middle ground folks that things get going a little bit and you're like, I like it. I like what I'm feeling. It feels pretty good. You get your hand up a little bit, you know. Before you know it, fourth cervical, you may even jump a little. And then you got some, and I love you, I do love you, but I promise, I think if Jesus Christ ripped the lid off of this room, spoke your name out loud, and said, hey, so and so, would you try to worship me, you would be like, are you talking to me? You got her. So I got them all across the board. But sometimes we have to spend so much effort worshiping just so that we can all get in one mind and one accord. Sunday shouldn't be a pep rally. So I shouldn't have to have people up here like cheerleaders and going, come on, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, give me a J, give me an E. But sometimes Sundays feel that way, like I got to get up, like, what's going on? Is he still good? Is he still there? Do you still have his Spirit? I feel like I got to go through a list of things, and you're like, oh yeah, oh yeah, I forgot about, I checked them all. Okay, God's here, I'll worship now. If we were really doing what we were supposed to be doing daily, we would come in here and this would be a victory march every week. That's what Sunday's ought to be. We ought to come in them doors saying, he was with me this week. I gave a Bible study at a coffee shop. I watched an addict pray through to the Holy Ghost. There ought to be a steady stream going through the water every Sunday. Why? Because it's a victory march. That's what'll happen, ladies and gentlemen, when we get to the business of disciplining. When we get to live in an everyday ministry, the Lord added daily.

Not very many local churches have reached the activity level of being a daily church, but when they do, God will add daily. If we're doing what we're supposed to be doing Monday through Saturday, there won't have to be a therapy session on Sunday for codependent saints. Nothing excites us like sharing real life stories about how lives are being changed every day. Oh, how I love testimonies. I love them. I love hearing them. But if you're not out there talking to somebody, how are you going to get a testimony? If we get our theology right and do what we should be doing Monday through Saturday, then Sunday will be an important part of the entire life of worship.

Listen, Center Point, we're smack dab in the middle of this city. Bishop started many years ago with a vision. He started planting churches. It's about three, three and a half years ago God started working on me. We'd already started a couple of daughter works under my administration, but I felt like God was doing something different to me on how we were gonna approach this. In prayer, when one morning I feel like God opened my eyes and I could see a map, I could see our city. And I seen our church: we're almost dead center of the city right now. Right now, many of you even know this, we're almost exactly dead center of the state. If you go about a half a mile up, Old Last Cast is behind there. There's actually a marker there that says that you're in the geographical center of the state of Tennessee. I don't feel like none of that is a coincidence. I feel like God has put us right in the middle where he wanted us to be. And in my prayer time that morning, I could see the church here, this campus sitting where it is, and God was showing me we're going to put satellite campuses all around this city. Why? Because that's the way we can best effectively reach this city. We can't build buildings fast enough for the revival that God has for us. We can't. But we can continue to push out when we become a daily church, when we understand that we need to go into regional areas, when we understand that Blackman needs a place to work, to meet. But Rockville needs a place to meet. Eagle needs a place to meet. Walter Hill, Buchanan, South Church, New Salem, all these are places inside our city, little boroughs, so to speak, where I know that God has placed individuals who don't know the truth, that I've had the gospel revealed to them. And we're doing, we got one going over in New Salem right now, but that's not the only one. There's got to be more.

If we're going to truly be a church that operates seven days a week, then seven days a week there needs to be some place around here where if someone desires to have an opportunity to be in the presence of God, that we're doing our best to facilitate that, that there's somebody there who can teach them what thus saith the word of God, then somebody can help pray with them, that somebody can baptize them in Jesus name. So we're going to do that. We're working hard on that. Do our best to disciple. We're going to focus on teaching Bible studies. We're going to focus on teaching Bible studies. We we are going to focus on teaching Bible studies.

I want you today, I want you to go look at that new web page. Jeff and Josh have been working really hard on it. It's so awesome. All the resources you need are right there. All you need is right there. I want you to sign up. It says, would you, you want to join the team? You just join the team. Give him your name so we know that you you are willing to teach a Bible study. I've never taught a Bible study, pastor. That's okay. There was a time when I had never taught a Bible study too. Well, what if I don't know how to answer the questions? I'm going to tell you something. There are still some times when people ask me a question and I say, that's a good question. I don't know the answer. Maybe that shocks you, but there's still sometimes they throw them out there, I'm like, man, I don't, I don't think I've ever thought about that. But here's my response: I'm going to pray about it. Give me a few days and I'll get back with you. You don't have to have all the answers. You don't have to. Well, pastor, I don't mean, there's still some areas in my life I'm not, I mean, I'm working on it, you know. I'm not a hundred percent over here. It's okay. It's okay. If the qualification for teaching a Bible study was that you had to be 100 all the time in every area of your life, then none of us qualify. None of us. So quit finding an excuse. We're going to teach 300 Bible studies this year. We're going to teach 300 Bible studies this year. 300. Josh just told you how easy it was. He had a couple people on his mind. He just sent him an email and said, hey, I'm going to do a Bible study. Got five people off an email. People that I don't know. People that if you say, well well well, Kevin Allen would do that. Kevin, who Okay, I'm I'm I'm not a big deal. I'm a very little deal. I'm almost a negative deal. You don't, you don't have to have all this stuff behind you. All you have to do is be willing. Be willing. Be willing. We're going to teach 300 Bible studies this year.

We're introducing something new this year. We're calling it semesters. We're going to do focused teaching, fellowship, preaching, connect groups, serve opportunities for certain periods of time. The first semester is going to be starting in the first Sunday in February. You're going to be hearing a lot about semesters this year, where we are intentionally focusing for a set period of time on discipleship that goes seven days a week. Things are going to run together. Themes are going to run together. Lessons are going to run together and be taught together. What happens on Sunday will go into a small group opportunity later during that week for for you to further discuss what's been preached. We're going to focus on Christian education. We're going to focus on our kids. We're going to get kids church back on a consistent basis, in the name of Jesus Christ, because our kids have already lacked enough in their life. We're going to get back to having our Christian education classes, because we need that discipleship in our life. We're going to, we're going to be as safe as we can. We're going to be mindful. We're not going to be rogue. We're not going to do things just just because we can. We're going to, we're going to do it because we know the importance behind it. We have to be more engaged. I'm excited about semesters. You're going to get a little bit more explanation about that in the coming weeks.

Part of semesters though is going to give an opportunity for people to be more involved in ministry here at this church. Serve opportunities: everybody, and I mean everybody, should be on a serve team. There is no reason why you're not on a serve team somewhere around here. I thank God for those volunteers who show up every week, from from the people in the parking lot to our security team to our ushers to our greeters to to our teachers, and and then so many other areas behind the scenes: some of our tech and our musicians and our singers. Opportunities. And and I know being a part of a seven day week discipleship ministry church means you're involved in ministry somewhere. God has not called one person ever, ever, ever, never ever. I mean, never ever did he call anybody to sit on a pew. And I'll take it one step further, that never ever ever did he ever call anybody to only be a tithe payer. You need to be involved in ministry.

Part of the great thing about semesters is there's going to be opportunities for you to be a part of a serve team for a small period of time, if there's an area of ministry that maybe you've been interested in around here at church, but he didn't know if you want to give a full blown commitment. Because I know sometimes we have very passionate directors around here. We have individuals who, they are so passionate about their ministry that when they come to you, they're on a level 11. And when you talk to them about ministry, you all you can see is that you have to do that ministry your entire life. Okay? You don't have to do that, okay? There are chances for you to be involved in ministry. And here's the deal, guys. Some some things you can try out, because there may be something that you're really passionate about, and then you start doing it and you realize that you're not passionate about it anymore. And there may be some things that you're kind of curious about, and then you get involved in it and you become really passionate about it. So we're going to try our best to open up as many opportunities around here as we can. Some of them have different qualifications. Some of them are going to have background checks involved because of the nature of what it is. But I want you to know that we're going to do our best for you to be involved in ministry. If you have a desire, we're going to try to facilitate that, because everybody is a minister.

We've already started, and Hank and his team have done such a great job with Next Steps and Elements. This is the beginning steps of discipleship at this church, and it is a must for ministry at Center Point. And I'm going to keep pushing prayer. I'm going to keep pushing prayer. I'm going to encourage and promote prayer as many times as I can. We need to individually need it. Corporately, we must be known as a church of powerful prayer. We must be known as a church of powerful prayer. We have to spend time in prayer, because prayer can do anything God can do, and God can do everything. We have to be known for prayer. We got to be about that business.

Our city is becoming more and more diversified, so we must become more more multicultural in what we do in this city. And tell you, ladies and gentlemen, we, it, if we come in here and we are in this church and we look around and we all look the same, we're not doing something right. We're not doing something right. I thank God for for Ron Haskins, his wife, and that team that's over there right now having church in the chapel. I thank God for them, because they're reaching into a demographic inside our city that needs Jesus too. I'm thankful for what they're doing over there. He and I have talked about some changes in this upcoming year. There's going to be some times they're going to join us more. There's going to be sometimes I want to encourage some of you to go over there and worship with them. Guess what you do when you go over there and you worship with them? You feel the presence of God. Guess what happens over there? People, people receive the Holy Ghost. Miracle, signs and wonders happen over there. You may not be able to fully understand everything. But here, I'm gonna give you a little note: Ron Haskins preaches in English. He dies, so you can understand the sermon. He has an interpreter that preaches too. Many people have dedicated their time. Brother Sloan and the music department works with Jason Heim over there. They rotate musicians too. There's all kinds of wonderful opportunities for you to be plugged in and do something great for the kingdom.

Jesus uttered numerous powerful statements to his disciples immediately prior to his departure. Acts chapter 1 verse number 8 says: but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be witness to me in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samara, and to the end of the earth. He told them to go back and wait till you be endued with power on high. But that power was coming for a reason: to be a witness. To wait for the promise that was to come, to be a witness to them locally in Murfreesboro, regionally in Middle Tennessee, to reach across our state and into the uttermost parts of the earth. It was this vision. It was this future that was captivating and compelling. But it was contingent on his command to go and make disciples. The command to go and make disciples must become the overarching theme at Center Point, to which all other principles, all other practices, all of the purposes align. Whatever it is we're doing here, we must ask the question: does this help with discipleship? Is this helping us disciple people? Fellowship helps disciple, if it's done right. Getting together, teaching, preaching, singing, worship, everything must be asked and filtered through the question: does this help us with discipleship?

No leader, personality, program, or initiative can or should ever attempt to replace the plain language that would come directly from Jesus Christ himself, the purchaser and the founder of the church. He never told us to build buildings or to build programs or massive congregations, but he said go and make disciples. What would happen to Center Point if a culture of disciple making broke out inside this church, and every fiber of every activity we did, even if every department, every director, every teacher, every saint personally made disciples and had a priority in their life to make disciples everywhere they went? What would happen? I'll tell you what happened: explosive revival and growth will take place. We'll see the miracles and the signs and the wonders. We'll see God show up in a miraculous way. We'll see things happen that we've only ever heard about and ever dreamed about, if we get radical about disciplining.

The message that Jesus gave in Matthew 5, 6 and 7, and in Matthew 25, should be taken to heart. It should be compelling. It is the reason to his message in these chapters has to be a a a a motivation. I'm afraid that Christianity as a whole has moved into this social gospel, that by providing food and clothing and shelter, that we are meeting individual needs. Yes, you may be meeting some physical needs, but you're not doing anything for them spiritually. And though their belly may be full and they may have a warm blanket to hold on to, are they any closer to going to heaven than they were before you gave them the sandwich? The apostolic church has fallen way behind the curve on some of these social agendas. That doesn't mean we're against it. It's honorable, and it's an impressive thing to be a part of these humanitarian efforts, but they are not the primary mission of the church. They never have been. They've always been second. It has always been second to the gospel. Always. It's important and we should do it, and we're going to continue to do it and do it in a better way, but it is always second to the gospel.

We all feel good about ourselves for great church services, awesome programs, and amazing small group activities. But let me give us a reality check. Have we made any disciples? Have we made any disciples? The main point of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not to become a member of a church. It's not to sign up or check off a box. The priority of Jesus and his disciples was the lost world that he came to save. His priority was to seek and to save that which is lost. What is our priority, Center Point? What is our priority? Is it just to have great church service? Is that it? Is it just to have this nice facility to be in? Does that make us feel good? Is it just to show how much money we give every year to the cause of missions? Is that the priority? Are those things important? Yes. But is that the priority? Is that all we are in the grand scheme of the Great Commission? That seems so low. I believe that not reaching the people that are around us every day as a local church, not being focused intentionally on discipleship, but every level of ministry here at Center Point, is to miss the mark.

Jesus spent most of his time in small group or one-on-one sessions. Yes, yes, yes, he had opportunity to preach to the masses, but the majority of the time he was with the few. Why? Because the greatest impact you have is not preaching to 500 or 5,000. The greatest impact you have is preaching to one. One. Just one. Just one. We have to get back to discipleship. We can be so focused on winning souls that we can forget that Jesus never instructed us to win anything. He said go and make disciples.

As I bring this to a close and the musicians get ready to come, we will never fulfill the Great Commission by simply having guests show up at our service. We should never feel good by the fact that we just see new faces come into this building on a weekly basis. Because, ladies and gentlemen, I love Murfreesboro. I love this city. I love it. I love the growth around here. I don't always like the traffic, but I love the growth. I love the new stuff that comes in. I don't always like the traffic. I love seeing all the stuff that comes in here. It's great. These new places to pop up, new coffee shops, local little, like, I don't like the traffic. But we shouldn't be surprised with the amount of growth that this city naturally has, that we just see new faces come and pat ourselves on the back and say, praise God, we're doing good stuff. There's just new folks coming in all the time. Guys, new folks are just going to come in because new folks are coming in. They're like, hey, I wonder what that place is. Let's go check it out. That doesn't mean that we've done one thing. We have to be intentional with our discipleship. We have to be intentional fostering relationships with people.

Here's here's the deal, guys. I'm going to work as hard as I possibly can. I hope you guys know I, I give everything I have for this place. This is, I know God has called me to be here. But I cannot do this by myself. I can't teach all the Bible studies. I can't. And the reality is, there's people who are never going to allow me to teach a Bible study to them. But you have people that you're around on a regular basis that know your name. They know what you like. They know how you take your coffee. They know what kind of car you drive. They know where your kids go to school. They know where you went on vacation. They know all these things about you. But do they know your God? Do they know your God? Do they know the truth that you know? Do they — you have an open door that I will never have. You have a chance to talk about Jesus to them, and they would always turn me off. You do. You have that. See, God in his infinite wisdom understood that if his message was going to truly reach the world, it was not going to be done in mass arenas where his message would be broadcast out on speakers. And the reason I say that is, he never asked us to do that. Matter of fact, I'm fairly convinced that if you were on an island by yourself and you had this book, you'd never read it, but the only thing you had to read was this. I'm fairly convinced in my heart of hearts, if you read this in its entirety and I asked you to describe to me what church was, that it wouldn't look anything like what we call church. Now, I'm not against what we do. I'm very much for it. But we can get so caught up in how we have designed things that we forget he simply said go and make a disciple.

David, come here. Don't be nervous. It's not a pop quiz. Jesus understood that if you go find one and you spend some time with them, you develop a relationship with them, there's a great chance that they can come in contact with the God you serve. There's a real high probability that they themselves will become a follower. And if it's done right, this guy goes — ain't going nowhere — this guy goes and he finds — Kyle, come here — because he has friends that are outside of us. And then he'll stand over here, right there, and he — put your arm around him — and then he starts talking to somebody about discipline. And then I go find another friend and I start talking, and I develop a relationship, and I start talking about Jesus. And then she goes and finds a friend. And at the same time he knew about it. And then he goes and finds a friend. And then, because these friends are doing good, I'll go and find — come here, Jennifer — I'll go and find another friend. And then they find friends. And it's been proven that you could reach the world in one generation. One generation. We could reach the world if we all personally took to heart, I'm gonna disciple one person. Just one. Think about this. Thank you guys so much. Think about this with me for just a minute as I get ready to close.

300 Bible studies. What if we got a hundred out of the 300 Bible studies that are actually discipled once? You look around this room, there are 768 chairs in this room. I know I personally have set in every one of them. Don't ask me why. I don't know. I just wanted to. I did it one day. Crazy things happen to you when you build. I just seen the number came in on my iPad while I was preaching: 380 of us here today. We went 100, 100 more this time last year. What if there's a hundred more of your friends, your co-workers, your family? What if there's a hundred more in here because we just purposed in our heart, I'm gonna find one, just one, that I can disciple this year? This one, as I get ready to close this out, I'm going to pray that God's going to give you that one. He's going to put it right there in your mind who it is, because I believe in asking and receiving, especially when I know I'm asking for his will, that I'm going to receive his will.

When Jesus went and he did what he did and he bore that cross, let me ask you: whose cross did he bear? Whose cross was it? Was it his cross? No. It was mine, and it was yours. So when he gave instructions and said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his — whose cross are we supposed to pick up? Who are you supposed to be reaching for? Who are you supposed to be following after? Jesus. Who you supposed to be reaching for? He's fixing to give you the name in this prayer. I've asked him in my time early this morning to put it in our heart and our spirit, the one that we're supposed to talk to. We have to be radical about discipleship. When we do, when we become a church who's cultured and discipling people, this place will not contain what he will do. I'm no longer content by just having great worship service. I love it, but that's not what he called us to do. He called us to go and to make disciples.

Will you pray with me? God, I know the vision you laid in me many months ago. I know that burning desire that you placed down inside of me. God, I pray that in this moment we are in right now, that you would begin to reveal to us who it is that you want us to talk to. God, we see them. We work with them. We pass by them. We talk to them. We live with them. You know who they are, Lord. I pray that you would just confirm right now to every man and woman that is in this room exactly who it is that you want them to speak to. God, I pray that they could see them worshiping you right now, in a relationship with you right now, that they would understand that we have a chance to be a part of an eternal transaction, to feel the weight and the responsibility of that individual. God, I pray that we would, as a church collectively, feel the burden for discipleship, to reach into our city, to do all that we can to take this truth, your light, into this world.

You know, this is going to be a different altar call I give today, but here's the way it goes. If you need God to give you the strength to be a disciple maker, I'm going to ask you to come down to the altar right now. They'll give you the courage. It'll give you the knowledge. He'll give you the strength to reach out to those around you. I ask you to come right now. Come on, cause there's more I'm going to ask you to come, but come. We'll come. If that's you — yes, it's so beautiful, yes — if you need God, you need salvation today, I'm going to ask you to come down to this altar now. Come on down. If you need to get yourself right first, before you could reach out to anybody else, I invite you to come right now. Come on down. Come on down. That's it. Come on, push on in. I'm still not coming. Y'all push on in. Come on. The presence of God is moving right now. He's going to give you what you need. If you need strength, ask for it. If you need courage, ask for it. The word of God says you have not because you ask not, or if you ask, you ask a miss. I'm saying right now, Lord, you know who's around me. Oh, do you know who you're calling me to reach out to? God, give me a holy boldness to be able to speak your truth. Give me courage. Give me strength. God, give me wisdom. When the moment, the opportunity is right, God, I'll be able to recall your words back. That's it. Come on, reach out to him. Pray.