Questions That Apostolic People are Asked | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

stand with me if you're not already standing and i do give honor to this worship team and so thankful that we get led by the very best into the throne room of the lord and give honor to our senior pastor and much needed time away and his wife disbelieved that they're going to be refreshed and rejuvenated in jesus name somebody shout amen if you will turn with me to first corinthians chapter 9 and verse 22 we're going to open the word of god there's going to be a lot of reading tonight because you have come to midweek bible study and it would just be a little odd if we didn't study the bible on midweek bible study amen so we're going to do some reading and i believe that the lord is going to help us tonight the word says to the weak become i as weak this is paul speaking that i might gain the weak i am made all things to all men that i might by all means save some and this i do for the gospel's sake that i might be partaker thereof with you let me read another translation verse 22 says when i am with those who are weak i share their weakness for i want to bring the weak to christ yes i try to find common ground with everyone doing everything i can to save some i do everything to spread the good news and share in its blessings tonight i want to i want to continue on with pastors series simply entitled questions that apostolic people are asked questions that apostolic people are asked this is part three put your bibles on let's pray together father we love you father we're grateful lord god to be in your house tonight for the opportunity to give you praise with our lips lord to return the very oxygen that you put inside of our lungs we return it in praise to you father lord we're thankful lord god to be able to sing songs lord songs about your name songs about your power songs about your greatness though we've worshipped you we've given you honor now tonight we come to the part in the service where we are to be fed where we are to be educated by your word because the bible says that we have to have your word hidden in our hearts that we might not sin against you lord let your word be anointed tonight in jesus name we pray and everyone shout amen amen and amen you may be seated tonight i want to begin by kind of um talking over our our text tonight and then we're going to kind of move into questions that people might ask us and i believe have asked us but it's so important when we witness when we're sharing bible doctrine that we agree on as much as possible on common ground do we understand that um i i don't want to be that guy that guy that disagrees with everything people say because we don't have to be that guy because i believe right here in first first corinthians chapter 9 that paul he reveals his soul-winning technique to us i talked on sunday night a little bit about uh jesus's technique and how he would make disciples well paul which i believe was the greatest missionary to ever live i believe paul had some really good techniques that he used when he was preaching the gospel to unbelievers the truth of the matter is people believe whatever their community believes we talked about that sunday night most people profess to be christians and they don't even really truly understand what they believe it's just simply they believe whatever grandmother believed you you've witnessed those people they they tell you well i can't explain it and i i can't i can't really show you where it is in the bible but my my my dad taught me this or my mom taught me that or or we've been we've been this denomination for for three for three or four generations and this is just what we've always believed right you've heard that simply because that is what their community believes their their family tree has been in that denomination for centuries even sometimes and that's all they've ever known and they've never heard any different and the idea that we don't believe what the rest of their community believes can be a total shock somebody said amen it was the same case in paul's day i i believe that's why paul did his best to find common ground think about common ground that we be we agree upon on every church that is on william blunt drive every christian church as far as i know we don't have any mosques that are on william blind drive we uh as far as i know every church that lines both sides of the rose up and down our drive here are christian churches and i believe that each one of us believes in creation each one of us believe in the flood we we we believe in abraham the father of the nations each christian church on this drive believes in moses believes in the ten commandments we we believe the people of god conquered the promised land we believe uh the northern tribes and the southern tribes we we go to the new testament together we we all believe the virgin birth of jesus christ we believe the signs the miracles the wonders that jesus performed and we even believe the death the burial and the resurrection i would venture to say that we probably agree on at least 95 of what's written on the pages of this bible you understand where i'm going with this i i believe we can find enough common ground to build trust with our co-workers uh i don't believe it's the will of god that we just walk into the the break room and we just we throw something on they've never heard before and and we just start a conversation and try to make a friend by disagreeing that's not how it works there's got to be common ground that we can first find because here here's what happens when you're witnessing it and if you've witnessed you understand this if you're that guy that always disagrees people kind of put you in a category all to yourself right they all gang up on you they all get all their their like-minded friends together get their community together and they they gang up on you or you could find common you could 95 percent of the word of god you could find common ground in oh i believe we believe in the death of jesus christ we believe that he was buried and after three days he rose again you could get on the same common ground and then every once in a while we can kind of slip something in there that causes them to think well i've never read that before because again they're steeped in tradition they're steeped in religion they're steep they're steeped in things that they've been taught by their community that aren't even true but they've always just assumed that they were in the bible right you ask them you say oh really can you give give me some scripture give me give me chapter and verse for what you're telling me and what do they do they're they're like well well i'll have to go in there i'll have to go find that out i have to go ask them they they don't know because it's not there it's not there but they don't realize that so i believe as we go through these questions and and i'm excited because of these these questions are being compiled and the and the responses and the answers are being compiled so that in our hands we can have every for all four weeks of this series we can have these questions and these responses to these questions so that we too can go in and we can explain exactly how to answer each question but again we are going to find common ground so question number one questions that apostolic people are asked question number one aren't you supposed to have an interpreter if you speak in tongues anybody ever heard that one let's first find common ground on this question yes yes you do need an interpreter if you're referring to the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation isn't that a nice answer instead of just blowing the name he said just blow them out of the water and no you don't need an interpreter yes you do we're about to read about it if you have the gift of tongues you are to remain silent unless there is an interpreter that's going to interpret the tongue that you give but let's go into this because the common ground is simply yes yes you are correct however i want to let you know and this is what you'd say to them i want to let you know that there are more than one kind of tongues demonstrated in the bible matter of fact there there are three types of tongues and of course right away right away a denominal person will you know you'll start seeing smoke coming out of ears because uh they've researched they've gotten their concordance they've looked up the word tongues and they've just gone to each one of those verses and they just assumed that it was the same thing in each verse so we begin to talk and we talk with those there's a prophetic tongue gift of tongues one of the the nine gifts of the spirit and i tell them that's the tongue you're referring to this tongue benefits the church it benefits the body of christ but then you also have what's called a prayer tongue or we refer to that as praying in tongues a prayer language that intercessory prayer often leads to that that only benefits the person praying and then we have the third type of tongue which is the evidence tongue or some people call the proof tongue the the evidence of the holy ghost is the initial sign that a person has received the gift of the holy ghost and this is where most people get caught up when they start talking about tongues it's all it's very confusing to them but but we let them know that this tongue proves to both the person receiving the holy ghost and maybe also those around them those praying for them that this person has indeed been filled with the gift of the holy ghost so then i proceed and i go in because it seems like every single bible study that i teach especially if you start teaching like into his marvelous light which is which is pretty much the gospels book of acts the epistles and it's all it's all centered around love it's such a great bible study all centered around proving the necessity of salvation but if you if you get into preaching that or getting to teach that bible study you'll always get the same question always get it just tell me about these tongues i i i don't have an interpreter i've never been given that gift well let's kind of proceed because i want to start off with the tongue that we ended on which is the proof tongue or the evidence tongue so if you will turn with me to mark chapter 16 and 15 and we're going to prove the differences between these different types of tongues mark 16 15 and he jesus said unto them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature he's given the great commission he says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned and these signs verse 17 very important these signs shall follow them that believe in my name shall they cast out devils and they shall speak with new tongues so we understand that signs follow the believers and the believers shall i've got this in bold i underline it the believers shall speak with new tongues and it's very easy from that point you're in the gospels it's pointing towards the book of acts pointing to the beginning of the church i explain that to them and then i take them right to acts chapter two our favorite probably our favorite book in the bible acts two and one and when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting and they're appearing to them clothing tongues like as a fire set upon each of them in verse four is what i want to circle and focus when i'm speaking i say and they were all filled with the holy ghost and i let them read this right here and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave the utterance or the ability and here we just read about we read about the inaugural outpouring of the holy ghost this is a pastor talks about the law of firsts right we he just preached about that recently that the first mention and it's not the first match of the holy ghost but it is the first time that it was poured out and so this is the greatest place to take someone to say this is where it all began this was the inaugural moment when the spirit was poured out the spirit that jesus told us about the promise of the father was poured out and the very evidence of this infilling was a new tongue a tongue or a language that was not their native language and it was a language that they could not understand and i explained through verses 5 through 11 of acts chapter 2 tells us that there was at least 18 different languages represented in jerusalem that day and all the people the bible says from all these languages represented could hear their tongue being spoken by these mostly unlearned they understood by looking at them that these were not educated people that had learned these 18 different languages they understood they said aren't all these which speak galileans in this new tongue or this other tongue that these 120 people were speaking were not any language that they had learned or that they had understood the spirit of god was using the languages that these galileans were speaking their evident tongue to tell the great and mighty works of god so we looked down in verse 12 and and they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another what meaneth this and others mocking said these men are full of new wine but peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said unto them yemen of judea and all ye that dwell in jerusalem be this known unto you and hearken to my words for these are not drunken as he supposed seeing is but the third hour of the day but this is that which was spoken by the prophet joel do you see what peter just did here he found common ground with these people who are believers in the old testament he said i want to bring your prophet i want i want to talk about something we all believe in because the prophet joel says and it shall come to pass and and once he started preaching these words brother fuller they they perked up because they understood they had heard what the prophet joel had said and it shall come to pass in these last days saith god i will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your young men shall see visions your old men shall dream dreams and on my servants and on my handmaids i will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy and prophesy simply means it's to reveal by divine inspiration and peter continues on and he preaches this death the burial of the resurrection of jesus and he goes on to tell the people that they crucified the messiah but they're on the same they're on common ground they're they're on the same page now because now all of a sudden the people's memory is going back to the prophet joel and they're like that's right it was said the prophet did say uh thousands of years ago the prophet did say that there was going to be a last days when there would be an outpouring of god's spirit and so they began to believe what what peter was saying and they began to see these these 120 who who are speaking in this unknown language something is going on here that we must pay attention to and so the bible says in acts 2 and 36 therefore let all the house of israel know assuredly that god hath made this same jesus whom you have crucified both lord and christ and now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and sent in a peter into the rest of the apostles men and brethren what shall we do how do we respond to the word how do we respond to what joel the prophet has told us ages ago then peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost for the promise is unto you is to your children and to all that are far off even as many as the lord our god shall call and with many other words did he testify and he exhorted saying save yourself from this untoward generation then they that gladly received the word were baptized in the same day they were added unto them about 3 000 souls so the next question people ask is about the holy ghost and and the the evidence tongue wasn't it only for the jews it would seem like it was just for the day of pentecost it was just for these hundred and twenty and then the three thousand that responded to peter's preaching but we look in acts chapter eight and this is where we we bring when we start teaching a bible study we start saying it's not just for the jew but it's also for the samaritan because philip began to preach to the samaritans and this was this was so unaccepted by the jewish nation because a samaritan was looked at as a traitor it was a jew who had married a gentile and their offspring was a samaritan it was somebody that didn't even belong they were they were to be pushed out to some area their own country their own land you're not even to live near us but here we have philip preaching to the samaritans and the samaritans obeyed and were baptized in jesus name so what they do they send for the evangelists peter and john and peter and john come and start to preach and they lay their hands upon them and the bible says that they received the same holy ghost that the jews received on the day of pentecost and of course they were there in amazement the same amazement that happened in acts chapter 10 when peter preached to the gentiles so we have the jews on the day of pentecost we have the samaritans with philip and now we have peter as he's preaching to the gentiles you remember the story i don't have time to go into it but you remember he told god he said i can't go into the unclean i can't go to the unclean and and preach this beautiful this sacred gospel to the unclean and remember remember the vision he had of the animals inside of the sheet and and god said don't you call unclean would i have class he said go do what i tell you to do and so in chapter 10 of the book of acts while peter verse 44 while peter yet spake these words the holy ghost fell on all them which heard the word and they of the circumcision the jewish believers which believed were astonished as many as came with peter because that on the gentiles also was poured out the gift of the holy ghost for they heard them speak with other tongues and magnify god and if we ever chose a good time to praise the lord it would be right there because as far as i know 99 of us are gentiles and i thank god that he cared enough for the whole world not just one nation not just one people but he cared enough for us gentiles that he would pour out his spirit upon us and we would have the same evidence of the holy ghost and feeling that the jews had on the day of pentecost and the samaritans had in samaria they began to speak with other tongues that's the first type the second type of tongue in the bible is the personal prayer tongue it's it's what we call praying in tongues it's a prayer language and it benefits us look with me in first corinthians chapter 14. so i want to read the first four verses of first corinthians 14 i thank god for a prayer language it says follow after charity desire spiritual gifts but rather that ye may prophesy or that you preach for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but unto god for man understandeth for no man understandeth him howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries praying in tongues is for communication with god alone but he that prophesied or he that preacheth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself but he that preacheth edifies the church another translation says so a person praying in tongues helps himself grow spiritually but one who prophesies preaching messages from god helps the entire church grow in holiness and happiness i like that right there growing holiness and happiness some about people that are holy are people that are happy if you're not something's wrong somebody shout amen many times while praying in the spirit and using what i would call the prayer tongue we get so deep into prayer we get so deep into prayer it becomes more of what paul refers to as a as a groaning in the spirit this is this is not a tongue or language or that is a sign or an evidence of any kind it's not a language or a tongue that can be interpreted it's simply a tongue that we use during deep prayer moments when we can't even come up with any more english words we just go into this prayer language it's a beautiful thing we get we yeah you know when you when you start off in your morning prayer it's probably not something just gonna just gonna start right up it's something that you get to it's something that it's a level that we obtain in our prayer but it's not but it's not so high that we can't obtain it every day i believe we ought to pray and and speak in tongues every day i believe we can pray in a prayer language every day we just got to get to that point but you get we get to that point when we just have nothing else we can say and and the bible talks about it we can't even come up with words for what we need but the spirit makes intercession the spirit knows what we need and we begin just to groan and begin to speak in this tongue in this language it's not the evidence of the holy ghost and it's nothing that can be interpreted it's just a spiritual heavenly language that we edify it edifies ourselves it builds ourself up so then the third type of tongue that's representing the bible is the gift of tongues there are nine spiritual gifts they've been given to the church today i thank god for the nine spiritual gifts amen first corinthians 12 4 lists these gifts now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit and there are differences of administrations but the same lord and there are diversities of operations but it is the same god which worketh all in all but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit with all and here it is for to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by that same spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another the gift of healing by the same spirit to another working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another diverse kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues but all these worketh that one in the selfsame spirit dividing to every man severally as he will these nine gifts of the spirit we just read are for the edifying or the prophet of the saints of god the church the body of christ it's for the edifying of the church and these gifts are what makes us an apostolic church we realize that that if we were to quench these gifts we no longer have power we no longer have healing there's no more wonders that take place in the church any longer if we quench these nine spiritual gifts and what's sad is there's churches all over this world that believe that those gifts were just for the new testament age they don't believe healing is still in the church today matter of fact i i'll just i'll just tell you i was uh the same conversation i had with sister diana's friend when she was interviewing me about the the pentecostal the episode pentecostal church i began i began to tell her about i said pre-covered we would have our elders go across the front of the church and i said we would call uh any any sick among you let them come and call upon the elder and you would ask the young i told i was explaining her you'd ask the elder to anoint you with oil and the sickness whatever sickness we would pray the prayer of faith and people are healed in our services i said it's it's amazing we don't have just one healing service a year i said every service people are healed i said i told her i said that's what apostolic is and she sister diana she she kind of stopped for a moment and the first time on a conversation she said well it sounds like i need to visit your church and i really didn't catch it i'll be honest with you because we were kind of in subjects and i i i said oh i said yes it's a great church you need to come check it out you know i said that but it didn't really click but later on the conversation she began to tell me that after her third child was born that she contracted a disease and she is now in a wheelchair and then my mind went back to our conversation about healing and why she said i need to visit your church because obviously her church doesn't believe in healing and doesn't believe in the laying on of the hands of the sick so i'm thankful that we are a part of an apostolic church and to to remain and continue on as an apostolic pentecostal church we need these nine gifts of the spirit we can never allow them to seem awkward or weird or different we can't get to the place where we invite our friends and just say well i hope there's no tongue's interpretation tonight i hope sister so-and-so don't rise up and start that's what makes us apostolic with that that without that we're just another ordinary church but god has given us these nine gifts of the spirit but however we've got to use them properly because things can get out of order quickly when the gifts are not used properly my mind takes me back my mind takes me back to uh to the mid uh 70s and mid 80s and i i've watched youtube videos when they allow the gifts of the spirit to get out of control and some of these more charismatic churches that were just receiving the gift of the holy ghost and to see people barking like dogs and mooing like horses you know make sure y'all with me still but it's crazy i mean they were doing some laughing in the spirit so they're all laid out on top of each other and all kinds of gross immoral things going on in in the sanctuary but if you're not careful things get out of control if you don't keep these gifts where god intended them to be but paul paul as he begins as paul begins to explain the importance of the gifts and explain where they belong in the service first corinthians 14 27 it says this it says if any man speak in an unknown tongue let it be by two or at the most by three and that by course let one interpret but if there be no interpreter let him keep silence in the church and let him speak to himself and to god there's major church issues going on in corinth right here paul was trying to fix some things because we understand we understand you might explain this to whoever you're you're explaining the gifts of the spirit or the or the different kinds of tongues you might explain to them paul was not saying we ought not to have the gift of tongues in the church he was saying we just got to know how to handle the gift of tongues because why they were having services where somebody would just get up and and and they just began to speak in a tongue and the gift of tongues would go out and then they would sit down and another person would stand up and they would give their gift of tongues and another person would stand up and another person and by the time it was over with there was no interpretation and people would leave church going what what was that about kind of reminds me of going to these churches overseas brother naomi but there's no interpreter man i've been to south america it happened once i've been to germany it's happened to me before been to africa it's happened to me before i'm in that service man the whole time i don't understand one word now i can feel the spirit of god no doubt i feel the holy ghost i i don't know what they're singing but i feel something brother all right you know how it's like you know what it's like you hear them preach it but you can't understand the word they're saying you might hear gloria adios once said wow you kind of know what that means jesus jesus you know you gotta know what that means that's all that's all that that's it and that's what was happening in the church and so paul was trying to fix some things and so people will read paul fixing some issues in the church and go well paul he's preaching again speaking another tongue not true we got to make sure people understand people are educated to the word of god there has to be someone with a gift of interpretation if you're gonna have the gift of tongues in a church service paul was telling the church of course if there's no one in the congregation and sometimes you say well well how do you know if there's somebody there with a gift uh the gift of interpretation you you don't and we've had it happen before where somebody will stand up and give a gift of tongues what happens we'll wait hush comes over the congregation and we'll wait and if there's no interpretation you move forward that that's what we do we move forward we don't have more people give if there's no interpreter from that point on we go silent and we go back to our worship service amen but we got to explain we got to explain to people so in conclusion of the tongues the the original question was aren't you supposed to have an interpreter if you speak in tongues the answer to the question is it all matters what kind of tongue is being you're being referred to there's no need for interpreter when someone is speaking in tongues as evidence there's no need for an interpreter if somebody is praying in tongues you only need an interpreter when the gift of tongues is being used in a congregation in a church body questions that apostolic people ask question number two here it is i've both i'm both saved and filled with the holy spirit when i believe upon jesus christ for salvation right how many how many got that question all the time right well let's let's first find find common ground we first agree on the grounds that believing is for sure necessary when it comes to salvation right i mean if you don't believe there's really no reason to repent if you don't believe so we can we can agree upon the fact that believing is the first step so first of all let's go back though and let's study the word saved because saved is short for the word salvation and salvation is the most elastic word in the bible and this this strange little statement came from pastor raymond woodward and this strange little statement called the most elastic word in the bible we're gonna i'll put it put this chart up on the screen if you will my media team and we're gonna kind of go through and understand what salvation really is all about um i'm gonna look at my notes because i've got some notes about this but but if you look at this diagram here uh you'll you'll see past of course present future and up and down is what we're looking at experience we'll look across theological term we'll look across and then i'm saved from sins what okay so looking at that first column past we're talking about being saved well i was saved when i was seven years old it was it was an experience that i had i was saved from the world okay it's called i was saved now now if you asked me today and i had this question just the other day somebody i was going to be about to do they said well brother erickson would you would you say that you're saved and i said i'm sure trying to be i mean i said ask me if i'm planning on going to heaven absolutely but but save you if you look at the next column there in our present sanctified simply means i'm working on being saved okay so so past tense if you've got the holy ghost if you've been baptized in jesus if you follow the plan of salvation the theological turn of the past tense is you were justified just as if you had never sinned right you went down the water your sins were remitted i am saved from sins penalty right because death was the penalty of sin and so when you were saved you were taken out of that realm of death and now you're brought into newness of life you're a new creature you're different so then we come into the present which is now and now it's called sanctification or we are sanctified i am saved from sin's power since i have the spirit of god inside of me and the bible says greater is he that lives within me than he that is in this world now i have power i'm saved from the power of hell because now i've got a power inside of me that helps me to bind my flesh and allow my spirit to have control all right we understand we're talking about here this is being sanctified so you were justified that's when that's when you were saved if you will now you are justified or we're i'm sorry we're sanctified now in the future tense when i successfully successfully finish the course that i'm running i'm done i complete the race i will be saved and that word is glorified that that's that is the theological term we will have glorified bodies we will be glorified and i am saved from sins presence no more sin when we put on a glorified body so again i just wanna because we're gonna we're gonna cover this real quickly but we understand when people say well wasn't i saved well you're using the word saved in the wrong tense because saved is past tense it's not a well i know i'm saved well i'm trying to be saved but that's such a hard word that's that's why brother woodward said it's such an elastic word because you can't just use terms of save because that means that you're already you've already completed the course you've already won you've already got your reward but it's simply you're sanctified you're working on that middle area in sanctification the synonym is holiness and think of what bible that means holiness is the entire point of our christian life we're striving to be holy that that's that's what's what we're doing people and i don't know why holiness is a bad word to some people it ought to be the most beautiful word because that's what the whole christian walk is all about is we want to be holy now sanctification is a lifelong renovation project how many enjoy renovating things i don't understand y'all i we we built our house about eight years ago eight nine years ago and when we put that last screw or that last piece of tile in or whatever the last thing was we did i thought to myself i never want to touch this house again i want to move in i'll use a hammer to hang pictures and that's it brother jeter that's it i i don't want to renovate nothing i don't want to redo nothing i don't want to repaint nothing i don't want to touch another screwdriver i don't want to touch another drill i don't want to touch anything i'm in it i walk in the door but guess what about two years later paying somebody to paint the trim about four years later the outside of the house needs some painting right right it's never it's a it's an ongoing renovation there's no such thing as just build something and it's good to go as soon as you get done building it it starts to deteriorate and then all of a sudden we're going right back in man i got to start caulking all my my trim and all my woodwork again because there's all kinds of spaces going on that weren't there when the when when the trim carpenter got done and here i'm trying to get all this it's an ongoing never-ending process and the same thing happens with us we are a lifetime of renovation that's what holiness is we're conforming to the image or the likeness of jesus read a few verses colossians 3 9-10 it says lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him first corinthians 15 49 and as we have borne the image of the earthly we shall also bear the image of the heavenly now this i say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of god neither does corruption inherit incorruption and then one more scripture set that goes along with this second corinthians 3 and 17 now the lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty we love to sing about that but we move on but we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the lord god wants to make you over if you will into his image so if you have biblical salvation experience it will change you in the ways that you could not have previously imagined your desires will change come on you can testify to this your speech will change your priorities will change your thinking begins to change your heart begins to change your your activities will definitely change your your dress code will change your entire lifestyle will change because sanctification is about growing in the lord and what's the point if we're not going to grow in the lord we were never saved right to get to the justification or the sanctification part there has to be a continual growing and that's why we give new believers lots of time to learn the word of god and to grow in the ways of god right we give them a lot of time we don't we don't meet him at the back door and tell them how to dress we love everybody here you can wear whatever you want to wear and come work with us we love people to come worse with us doesn't make a bit of difference look the way you want to look come on and have church with us and worship god with us we love everybody regardless of their spiritual level of maturity and if we love them before they get saved right if we love them before they receive the gift of the holiness if we love them before they're baptized then why in the world would we love them before they're sanctified because it's a process they had to get the revelation of understanding the necessity of salvation to be saved and now they're going to have to get the revelation of the necessity to be sanctified so i repeat the question i'm both saved and filled the holy ghost when i believe in jesus christ for salvation right first thing you do explain the word save in past tense and then talk about we have to continually be obedient to god and work on or work out our own salvation philippians 2 12 says wherefore my brethren or my beloved as he have always obeyed not is in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling we are not saved by works we understand that however we do have to work out our salvation the next part of the question is asking if we automatically receive the gift of the holy ghost or or the infilling of the spirit of god the moment we believe and the the best place to take someone is acts chapter 19. love acts chapter 19. it's the easiest thing to teach in a bible study because it covers so many things look at verse one it came to pass that while apollos was at corinth paul having passed through the upper coast came to ephesus in finding certain disciples he said unto them have he received the holy ghost since you believe and underline that circle that in the bible that's such a huge question because in today's christian world believing is where so many stop but he said have you received the holy ghost since you believed and they said unto him we have not so much has heard whether there be any holy ghost and he said unto them unto what then were you baptized and they said unto john's baptism okay then said paul john barely baptized with the baptism of repentance saying unto the people that that they should believe on him which should come after him that is on christ jesus when they heard this because i believe that they knew this i believe they already heard this in the past they they had heard that there was another baptism there they had heard that somebody was following john the baptist and and so when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the lord jesus and when paul had laid his hands upon them the holy ghost came on them and they began to speak with tongues and prophesy so believing is the first step of the salvation plan but unless someone believes they won't be baptized and if they're not baptized then there's no promise of the holy ghost and without the spirit of god inside of them there is no everlasting life so believing is so important we can't downplay the word believe and i know just because the the christian world overuses it we can't downplay it because it's so important there has to be belief mark 16 16. we can quote this he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned pastor carpenter you know he always man i love when he explains this how he's explained it so many times he said if a person doesn't believe we know they will be baptized and if a person won't follow the plan of salvation there's the only ending for that person is damnation that's question two question three isn't baptism an outward sign of an inward decision how many heard that question that's religious we can find common ground once again however with this question because absolutely the decision to get baptized as a result of an inward decision to obey the plan of salvation absolutely it's definitely i mean you're doing something physical to something you made a you made a decision inside so we can find common ground with that somebody answer that question you could say oh absolutely it is but but but however that is not the purpose of baptism here's the purpose we put on christ when we're baptized galatians 3 27 for as many of you as have been baptized into christ have put on christ we are buried with christ in baptism and that's why it's so crucial that you explain the the importance of immersion in water because that's burial you got to explain there's no there's no burial like you don't bury somebody by flick flick dirt on their forehead or on their butt you bury somebody by putting them under the ground and you do it in the name of jesus because jesus is the one who shed his blood and jesus was the one who was buried for us every christian in the bible was baptized in that very way and baptism is absolutely essential for salvation john 20 23 whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosoever sins ye retain they are retained that that's an odd scripture because the church doesn't have the power to forgive sins only jesus does amen however the church is commanded to baptize so whoever we baptize has their sins remitted or washed away and whoever we don't baptize still has their sin first peter 3 verse 18 for christ have once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to god being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the spirit by which also he went and preached under the spirits in prison which some time were disobedient when once the long suffering of god waited in the days of noah while the ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water and this is the verse that you've got to bring people to the like figure where unto even baptism doth also now save us it's not about joining the church it's not about making a decision baptism also now saves us and putting away the filth of the flesh by the answer of a good conscience towards god by the resurrection of jesus christ romans 6 4 therefore we are buried with him in baptism unto death that like as christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father even so we also should walk in the newness of life so baptism is so much more than just an outward sign of an inward decision the average christian church baptizes their members to welcome them into a church membership it's a way for people to profess publicly that they're now a christian but we've not listened we've got to show the christian world that the baptism is so much more than a public confession because without baptism there's no salvation without salvation there's no no newness of life and without life eternal we will never see jesus so i want you to stand with me tonight questions that apostolic people are asked god help us help us to find common ground with people we're talking to please please you represent this church you represent the apostolic faith please be the person that people want to come to when they have a question and not a person that people want to avoid when they have a question we could very very quickly become that person if we're not careful that when they see you coming to the break room they see you coming on their line or or that they see you they have to ride along with you and they're like oh no not oh yeah i was going to say a name but i thought if i say somebody's name that's going to be bad you know they're saying not not him or not her but instead i want to be a oh man they always inspire me they always have something that just makes me think brother rob you're a soul winner man everybody that comes to westgate maine he brings more people to church and severe one here in maryville campus and every chance he gets he's trying to let people know listen there's something that maybe you haven't read in the world yet and although we agree on so much we have common ground with so much all you got to do listen all you got to do is just i said it sunday night just get that little light flicker and just a little bit just enough so they can't sleep at night come on you remember how it used to be when somebody first witnessed to you and and it finally hits you that the community that you're a part of may not be 100 correct maybe the way i've always thought has not been full truth but i believe we can let people know you have so much truth but there's more there's more for the rest of this month pastor is going to be coming and he's going to be sharing with us more questions that apostolic people are asked and i'm excited brother tyler pruitt thank you brother tyler pruitt he is he he is a worker in the kingdom of god he's he's getting all these messages and he's he's taking all the questions down and he's he's he's putting all the the replies all the answers together i've already seen a couple of of pastor's notes that he's put together thank you brother tyler it's going to be so important because when people get this in their hands and start to get asked these questions you're going to know how to respond to every one of these questions let's pray together father we love you lord we ask you lord god as we go into the workforce as we go into the community college and the universities lord even some of our some of our christian school students here at the academy they they sit next to to fellow students that may not even understand the gospel they don't even understand salvation they don't they don't understand tongues they don't have any understanding or their parents might have put them in the academy just looking for a good private school but lord i pray as we go out into our community lord god that we can reach or the people around us we can we can let them know that there's something more there's something greater the word of god is alive it's it's it's a fire that can't be quenched it's something that every time we read it lord god we get so much more we're inspired by it and lord if we can get our co-workers to be inspired by truth lord i i just believe we're gonna get them in our small groups we're gonna get them into this house here we're going to get them in the water we're going to get them in the altar and i just believe revival is going to take place when we as the church can explain exactly what your word teaches us to tell others lord god i'm just praying for every man and every woman want to just lift up your hand if you're interested in being a disciple maker and come on pray for yourself right now pray pray that god will speak to you to put a heart to put a person's name on your heart and come on somebody i just believe i i've got i've got a man in our community that i've been going to his restaurant i've been believing that god is speaking to his heart i've been trying to speak life into his into his mind and into his heart i'm just believing oh shut up oh i pray put more people in my heart put them in my mind lord i pray for every man woman boy and girl that's in this place every teenager oh god every hyphenate student lord god place somebody in their lives that they can pour into lord that they can they can reach out and say i want to add value to you and not just to give you a better paycheck or help you to earn more money i'm going to add value because i'm going to teach you the plan of salvation i'm going to do something for you that's going to change your life forever it's going to change your eternity forever god i pray this prayer for each person in first apostolic lord did i pray if there's any person here tonight that had questions lord god that i raised in this message lord i pray that their questions were answered if there was confusion in their mind i pray that they've been enlightened to your word i pray that your word would speak for itself and lord they would go home and study the scripture to where they know without a shadow of a doubt it's true in jesus name we pray we'll give you all the praise and all the glory come on let's just lift our hands one more time let's praise him lord we love you lord we bless you in this house lord we give you glory lord we give you honor today lord we're saying hallelujahs to you and lord god we end this service by praising your name because you're so good you're so great lord you've given us salvation and we're so thankful for it lord god we're going to be holy because you're holy lord god we're going to live for you because there's nothing we'd rather do you