Advancing God's Kingdom

praise the lord everyone what a powerful presence of the lord in this place tonight just remain standing for a moment i'm going to the word of the lord in luke chapter 12. but let me say how much i appreciate my family my wife my children all three of my children and one of my two daughters-in-law was in was on the platform here a few moments ago i'm not a big person to push my own family except for the one song that i sing they sing before i preach anything else they do at this conference i didn't ask them it wasn't my doing somebody else may have done so but they have to work for it because they grew up in a whole missions church ministry was a family affair because it had to be and as we got more people of course we involve more people but i think it's very important my wife is at least 50 percent of my ministry probably more if the truth is known and god has blessed our family and i do want to give honor to them and of course to our general board thank you to our

general board and our general officials and i'm i'm just going to cut to the chase tonight i'm not generally a long- winded preacher and don't plan to be i i will say some things that may be preparatory but let me just say say what i feel in my heart i'm not the best preacher you're going to hear in this conference i'm not the greatest worship leader you're going to experience i'm not the greatest prayer warrior i'm not trying to do any of those things to perfection i think brother brown did an outstanding job and he made amen we've been blessed from the very start brother coltharp boots on the ground until just a few moments ago wait until pentecost and so i'm not worried about all that i don't have to do any of that but i do have something god has given me to do tonight so i'm just going to do that and i believe there's a prophetic spirit in this conference and in this service tonight and you can you can judge in the spirit and i want you to but somewhere during the next few minutes god's going to speak to

the united pentecostal church international into the apostolic movement not because of me but i'm just this is my job right now and if you'll receive it i believe god has something for us luke chapter 12 verse 31 through 32 the words of jesus luke chapter 12 verse 31 but rather seek ye the kingdom of god and all these things shall be added unto you fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom and i'm preaching advancing god's kingdom you may be seated now this message has been on my heart for several months and the notes that you will see from time to time on the screen were prepared several weeks ago but i feel that there has been a flow of the holy ghost and i hope you will see the same thing of how god has been speaking to us throughout this conference and i just want to add my part to it and i want us to to think as the united pentecostal church international and extending beyond our fellowship to the entire apostolic movement why are we here at this juncture in history and where

are we in god's purpose and my job is somehow tonight to deliver the word of the lord to us as to where we are and what we're supposed to be doing and where god wants us to go in the context jesus christ says it's god's pleasure to give you the kingdom now if you look at the context he says don't worry about food don't worry about clothing don't worry about these things as the pagans do because god has a better plan in other words jesus was saying don't make worldly success our priority and whether it be in a completely secular context of advancing in business or politics or in wealth or whether it be in a church context of trying to achieve the same goals in a christian context he says don't worry about success as the world count success don't compare yourself to others about food and clothes and money and position and power and possessions that's not what i'm talking about he says that's your kingdom that's not god's kingdom in fact there's a very strong warning earlier in the chapter in verse 15 which simply jesus said take heed and beware of

covetousness beware of greed for a man's life consisted not in the abundance of the things which he possesses your worth is not determined by the things you own he warns us in the same context where he says god wants to give you his kingdom but if you hold on to your kingdom you'll never possess god's kingdom and i realize i'm preaching brother mangan sermon he did it far more eloquently than i will do so i'll just spend a few moments on that but i do want to say if you go on and read verses 33-34 he says sell your possessions give to the poor store treasure in heaven i think we gloss over that because we think well surely he couldn't mean sell everything we've got to live and i agree i suppose if we found a poor person sold everything we own gave it to that poor person they would be rich and we would be poor and they would have to give it back to us and and then we'd have to reconsecrate give it back to them so we can trivialize that and say it's not relevant or somehow we can take

it seriously all right yes he understands we need a house to live in and in our society we probably need a car to get to church and get to work but but somehow we cannot evade the force of this statement that you have to hold your possessions lightly you have to be willing to use them for the kingdom of god i was raised in a missionary home in a third world country when i walk into my house today many times i realize this is bigger than any church where i grew up in when i walk into my bathroom i realize this is greater larger than any a house of any of the preachers where i grew up with and every once in a while it i go into the backyard and swim in the swimming pool it it's a great way for me to exercise and i say i'm a rich person anybody that owns a swimming pool is a rich person i drive a car here in st louis provided by headquarters i drive a car when i'm in austin given to me by a businessman i i have a home in austin i

have a home here in st louis provided by the upci i'm blessed and every once in a while it causes me to reevaluate wait a minute am i really holding my possessions lightly and i determined a long time ago whatever possessions i have i need to give them to god and we did that in whole missions and beyond whole missions even as our church grew we kept planting other churches and so if somebody need to ride to church they can ride in my car if somebody needed a vehicle to pick up kids they could use my minivan if somebody needed a place for a bible study they could come to our house if they needed a prayer meeting they could come to our house because whatever i have belongs to the lord if my house is too nice to have kids come over i need to get rid of my house if my car is too nice to pick up sunday school kids i need to get rid of my car whatever i have belongs to god i'm just using it i'm just borrowing it but it's got to be given to god and i

will tell you i have a nice income i've got a retirement plan but i want you to know and and please miss don't misunderstand i i just have to preach for my experience and i just have to preach what i know and i i try to tell you that that i'm willing to do whatever i ask you to do but as a whole missions pastor and not just that but through building program after building programs starting ocean graduate school there are times or i'd have to tell my wife we we have to max out some credit cards we've got to get some zero interest credit cards and max them out and we've got to pay to finish this building program we got to take out a credit line and i want you to write a ten thousand dollar check and i want you to wire it to st louis because we got to make payroll for ursan graduate school we've got to make we've got to make a payment for our church so i would tell the church secretary i want you to wire some money we can't let the bills go unpaid whatever it

takes i've got to personally do it myself what i'm saying is thank god if you have a good income thank god if you have possessions but whatever you have if the lord needs it the lord can have it if you've got to work double time go ahead and work double time whatever god needs god should be able to have because it's not about my kingdom it's about his kingdom i'm not trying to possess my kingdom i'm trying to possess god's kingdom in luke chapter four the devil tempted jesus in three ways the first temptation in luke 4 was turn the stones into bread i think that is the temptation for a worldly work in other words take the supernatural power of god and use it for temporal gain many of us we're blessed some of us are great speakers some of us are great musicians some of us have great financial ability some of us through self-discipline and christian training we have the ability to achieve great things but there's a temptation to use the gift of god for earthly success for worldly work while you should work wise and provide for yourself god has

a plan for your talent and it's not primarily the business world it's not primarily your possessions it's not primarily bread for your table but the lord has need of that talent the lord has need he's given you that skill and that talent to possess his kingdom don't succumb to the temptation of worldly work the second temptation the devil said you can have all the kingdoms of the world if you'll just bow down well it was god's will for jesus to possess the kingdoms of the world he was and is the messiah he is going to establish his millennial reign upon earth he is going to be and is the king of kings and lord of lords so that goal was right but the method was evil and that's the second temptation now i'm not here to identify any particular church but does it seem to you there are many churches in our world today who have succumbed to the temptation of using the word of god the spirit of god the blessings of god for worldly results or if they have spiritual results to grow a congregation they're doing it the world's way we cannot

succumb to the temptation of a worldly method if you want a large church that's a noble desire but you can't do it by doing it the devil's way or the world's way that's an illegitimate method we must possess the kingdom god's way and the third temptation the devil said jump from the highest point of the temple and god will rescue you he'll send angels to catch you and by implication the whole world will see this magnificent spectacle worldly glory use the promises of god the blessings of god the anointing of god for worldly glory for worldly acclaim isn't that aren't these temptations the besetting temptations of the pentecostal and charismatic movement to try to build our kingdom with worldly work or god's kingdom by worldly methods or the end result worldly glory so we've got to resist those temptations the local church is not our personal kingdom it's not our family business i believe in involving family in the church but we've got to be very careful not to tamper with god's kingdom we've got to do it god's way we've got to make sure it's not about us but it's about him it's not

about our income but it's about the people of god it's not about our family's security it's not about our social security but it's about doing the work of the kingdom of god if we expected of whole missionaries why not of us if we expected of global missionaries why not of us we're all gonna stand in the judgment together i want to be what god has called me to be i want to seek his kingdom his way for his glory if you notice the ministry of jesus in mark chapter 1 verse 14 through 15 the bible says that after john the baptist jesus came he began his earthly ministry and notice what characterized his preaching it simply says in mark 1 14 jesus came into galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of god and saying the time is fulfilled the kingdom of god is at hand repent ye and believe the gospel if we want god's kingdom the first thing we'll preach is repentance and faith we cannot establish god's kingdom any other way we can't sugarcoat the need for repentance we can talk about success we can talk about self-esteem we can talk about

positive attitude but at some point we must say you've got to repent of your sins there's got to be a change of heart there's got to be a definite conviction there's got to be an experience of god to turn from sin and believe the gospel of jesus christ there can be no establishing of god's kingdom without preaching repentance from sin and faith in god i know this is baking basic and i'm laying a foundation but just stick with me for a few minutes and of course i can preach john 3 5 where jesus said except you're born of the water and of the spirit you cannot enter into the kingdom of god if we're going to establish god's kingdom we better preach the birth of water and we better preach the birth of the spirit we can't disguise that we can't minimize that that is the message you must be born again you must be born of the water you must go down in the water in the name of jesus you must be born of the spirit you must be filled with the gift of the holy ghost speaking in tongues as the spirit

of god gives utterance you can build a church on that message oh yes you can if you're interested in god's kingdom you can build a church preaching repentance baptism in jesus name the baptism of the holy ghost faith in god oh yes you can in fact that's the only way to build god's kingdom notice i'm quoting from jesus himself jesus himself when peter preached on the day of pentecost and all the apostles stood with him they didn't recall in shock saying peter where did you get that from who told you to come up with that they were just preaching what jesus had drilled into their minds what he had preached day in and day out publicly and privately openly and in secret you've got to repent if you want to see the kingdom of god you must repent you must believe you must be born again you must be baptized you must receive the holy ghost that's what jesus preached talking about god's kingdom we're trying to establish god's kingdom if you think of the kingdom of god what does it literally mean it means god's rule and one day it will be eternal one

day it will be open in the millennial kingdom and then after the last judgment throughout eternity but god's kingdom has already come in the hearts and lives of people so the present day kingdom is the rule and reign of god in the hearts and lives of his people now there are three aspects to this kingdom of god the first aspect of the kingdom is god's purpose and we heard a lot about that early this week what powerful messages each night of aligning our church with god's purpose the united pentecostal church international says its mission is the whole gospel to the whole world by the whole church i believe that is god's purpose jesus came to seek and to save the lost he did not discriminate on what kind of loss it was the lost and so the mission of jesus was the whole gospel to the whole world and he commissioned his apostles to have the whole church involved but it's too easy for us to get sidetracked we can quote the slogan but how many times are we misaligned with the true mission even in our national general activities it could be easy to

focus on i what we're trying to accomplish and really not seeing the big picture so if we want the kingdom of god it has to start with god's purpose but as we've seen demonstrated wednesday night and thursday night when we start aligning with god's purpose the second aspect of the kingdom is god's provision could it be there is a time of sacrifice we can't minimize that and there are times where god will bring us back to the place of sacrifice no matter how successful we may seem to be i'm not minimizing that but could it be many of our trials and many of our lack and many of our frustrations are due to that we are not aligned with god's purpose if we're praying sincerely and even frantically but we have our own agendas if we could align with god's purpose we would have god's provision so if you don't have money to pay the bills and you don't have money to pay the church bills go back and align yourself with god's purpose go back to the altar of consecration go back to the experience where god called you and make sure you're aligning

yourself with god's purpose and then trust for god's provision the third aspect of god's rule is god's presence i'm so thankful that this is not just a mechanical list here but when we're in his kingdom we have his presence we have his presence hallelujah and sometimes we're waiting on the provision and we don't know when and how it's going to come but i'm thankful to say in the midst of that we still have his presence if he says wait until pentecost we still have his presence if he says not yet i'm not to tell you if it's going to be this month or next month this year or next year i'm not going to tell you how it's going to happen but i will give you my presence you can have assurance you can hear from me i can't guarantee how god will answer your prayer tonight but i can guarantee you if you'll come tonight and pray in faith god will hear your cry and you will walk out of here with an assurance god has heard me it's in his hands it's under his control and everything's gonna be all right god's presence

that's god's kingdom romans 4 17 says the kingdom of god is not food and drink but it's righteousness and peace and joy in the holy ghost what a rich heritage righteousness that is rightness with god justification where god does not count our sins against us but he counts us as right in his sight but righteousness is not merely the declaration of justification but somehow god starts setting our lives right our lives were upside down our lives were twisted our lives were distorted but when we obey the gospel we start getting things set in right order that's the pursuit of holiness you cannot have the kingdom of god without the preaching of righteousness not and not only just the declaration of righteousness but the ongoing transformation of righteousness that's why holiness is not just an extra that's why it doesn't make sense to say i believe the doctrine but i don't believe the holiness holiness is the doctrine holiness is being set right in your attitude your spirit your heart it's being set right with god and it's a lifelong pursuit it's frustrating sometimes on the one hand people accuses of legalism because we're trying to

take the gospel seriously we know we're wrong we're trying to get set right we know society is messed up and we're trying to get our lives set right that's not legalism that's the kingdom of god that's the rule of god that's god taking over the sinful human heart that's god changing our priorities that's god changing our relationships it changes the way we talk the way we think the way we interact with people yes the way we dress yes the choice of amusement yes what we watch and read and look at is we're being set right that's the righteousness of god at work in the hearts and lives of people it also frustrates me when people love to talk about how the upci is going down the drain compromising this and compromising that we're doing this and we're doing that you know no need to be a prophet of doom and gloom yes there are problems everywhere but you know what if you look in your own church there are problems there's always somebody that's not set right i could probably go to any church in america and pick out one or two people and say

i see a tendency there i see a trend there i see something there if you don't take care of it you're gonna get messed up that's the human condition but i choose not to be a prophet of gloom and doom i choose to be preacher of righteousness hallelujah preacher of hope a preacher of forgiveness we don't neglect the standards but we're saying let god take over let god change the heart let god change the church i don't want to be a naysayer lest i end up as a murmur and a complainer and a false prophet if i proclaim the doom and gloom of the church i might be the one who ends up being the false prophet well take that for what it's worth righteousness and peace when we have the kingdom of god in our hearts here's the point we were fighting against god even we didn't know it we're fighting against god's will but when we come into god's kingdom his spirit takes control now we're at peace with god we're no longer fighting against him we're aligned to his purpose could it be that so many of our problems even in the

church are because we are not aligned with god's rule and therefore we're not at peace with god we're fighting against god we're like saul of tarsus who thought he was a good religious person all the point all the time he was fighting against the very one he was trying to serve peace and that leads to peace in our hearts and peace with our fellow human beings but the first and foremost thing is peace with god and then there's joy can't take the joy out of experience joy is happiness but it's more than happiness joy is an intense exultant happiness now you can have a managed church where everybody smiles and everybody sings an upbeat tune and it looks good and if the press comes and does a video you'll look like one happy people but the joy of the lord goes beyond human manufacturing there's an intensity there's an exultant joy there is a leap for joy it is right to have demonstrative worship it is right to get excited and so if somebody get seems to be a little outlined i'm just a little hesitant to pull their chain because i'd rather have a

little excessive exuberance than to have everybody just sitting there and going through the proper motions because the kingdom of god has some joy in it the kingdom of god has some rejoicing the kingdom of god has some exalted happiness there's got to be a leap for joy there's got to be a dance for joy there's got to be a response it's not a human kingdom it's not a human production it's the kingdom of god when i was a pastor and sometimes shockingly enough people would get an exuberant on sunday morning of all times when we have 50 visitors somebody would jump somebody twirl somebody dance somebody fall out didn't happen every sunday but sometimes it would i remember an engineer came to our church he had his doctorate he was a teacher at university of texas he brought his wife a very nice looking african-american couple and i was preaching away and at the end of my message sunday morning i asked everybody to stand and when i stood the woman fell out on the aisle begins speaking in tongues in front of 500 people on the eye on the floor and her husband who

has his doctor of engineering professor at university of texas watching his wife rolling on the floor i didn't do that it wasn't my fault i felt like the apostle peter i didn't lay hands on her while i was still speaking the holy ghost fell it wasn't my idea don't blame me i was gonna wait until she came to the altar so naturally i was worried so i went and talked to him and said well you know you know when god moves and i was trying to explain you know your wife is a wonderful lady and nobody thinks anything of it but you know what he accepted as genuine it wasn't long before he wanted to get baptized and i remember when i put him down in the water his wife was standing there she started speaking tongues she fell out in line with me pushing him down and when he came after the water he began speaking in tongues hallelujah i do believe things decently in order but sometimes i would just explain look if this is unusual to you i acknowledge it it is unusual but you know what god we teach is omnipotent

we teach he's all powerful we teach as high as the heaven is above the earth so are his ways higher than our ways so i i can't really apologize for him sometimes a god like that will do something unexpected he will do something outside the schedule and i really can't do anything about that you can't you can't make god fit your program and if you could make god fit your program that wouldn't be much of a god and he wouldn't be able to do a miracle in your life so accept it that occasionally god will blow your schedule god will blow your mind god will do something out of the ordinary that's the kind of god we serve if you want a god who can deliver from drugs if you want a god who can restore marriages you need a god who can do the miraculous you need a god who can shake you up you need a god who can change your mind don't apologize for the move of god if you're rude and harsh and hateful apologize but if god moves just try to explain god is god he can pretty much do

what he wants to around here that's kind of the whole point god is the king the rule of god is righteousness peace and joy in the holy ghost so my advice is if you want to advertise your church use all the latest tools of advertising use all the latest graphics use all the current technology of websites but somewhere in the middle you've got to say we believe in the work of the holy spirit we believe in miracles god will change your life god will deliver you god will set you free don't take the element of the rule of god the holy ghost out of it if you take the holy ghost out of it we have nothing more to offer than any other religion or social institution we are pentecostal we've got to emphasize the holy ghost we've got to emphasize the miraculous that's the kingdom of god it's not our kingdom i'm not trying to build my church on my philosophy i'm trying to get god to show up and build his kingdom according to his purpose notice my text little when he said little flock i don't think he was emphasizing smallness but

he was emphasizing victory in weakness you heard brother brown everything i'm preaching i'm just kind of putting theological commentary on brother brown's testimony okay and so i'm just adding the documentation that he didn't have time to cover when he said little flock what he was saying you might think yourself to be a little flock in the eyes of the world you might be a little flock but so what it's god's will to give you the kingdom you don't have to be the biggest church in town you don't have to have the biggest building in town in fact you don't even have to have a building it's god's good pleasure to give you the kingdom listen up little flock stop worrying about everything you don't have it's god's will to use you apostolic church it's god's will to use you first pentecostal church of your town usa and canada it's god's will to give you the kingdom in your city first corinthians 26 through 28 the apostle paul wrote you know there are not many wise people in the church we have a few people with degrees and through our bible colleges nursing college we're trying

to give a few more degrees but we're never going to compete with the world in degrees and we're not trying to we're just trying to train and get the job done so there's not going to be many wise as the world calls wise they're going to be a few but not a whole lot not many powerful people the way the world counts power not many noble or high born or wealthy people every once in a while god will give you a businessman uh you know but you don't count on that i remember a guy that was in and out of church and he was playing the lottery and uh he wasn't working on a job he was letting his wife support him so i called him in for pastoral counseling began to fuss at him and he said well brother bernard when i win the lottery i'm going to give the money to the church i said i don't need you to win the lottery and give your money to church i just need you to get a job and pay tithes if everybody would get a job and pay tithes we'd build a church

we don't need the lottery we just need tithe payers now we'll confess we started our building program we did have a businessman that sold a business and delivered it in my hands a check for one million dollars i'd never seen a check for one million dollars i was glad to receive it but face it in 33 years of full-time ministry that's all that's only happened one time okay so you might have a few wealthy people but that's not what you depend on he says actually the apostle paul wrote god delights in using the people that are considered foolish that's why when somebody comes to me with a word you know i use discernment but i usually hear them out because you know if god can use a donkey to speak to a prophet maybe my best friend will say i'm doing great everything's fine the greatest message you've ever preached but somebody else might say it wasn't that great and i'm gonna at least listen because god sometimes uses foolish things to give us a message so people that are powerless people that are despised people the world considers nothing god specializes in using ordinary

people isn't that encouraging that means you and i can build a church god can use people like us best that's who he likes to use best people like you and me we are the kind of people who can inherit the kingdom what i'm saying god can use talent but he's not dependent upon our talent give him whatever you got but don't sit around waiting for something to show up you start possessing the kingdom to the best of your ability and let god make up the difference jonathan told his armored beer first samuel 14 6 you know there's no hindrance to god he can win the victory with many people or a few people let's just see what god wants to do if he wants to go and he wants to give us victory we can do it and they did david said in first samuel 17 45 he defied goliath he said you come with a sword that's an offensive weapon used up close you come with a spear that's an offensive weapon used at a distance you come with a shield that's a defensive weapon goliath had everything covered he had all strategies covered

completely david had a slingshot but he didn't even consider that he said i come in the name of the lord of hosts first pentecostal church pastor apostolic church pastor the devil might have a spear and a shield and a sword the other denominations might have a spear and a shield and a sword but if you will come in the name of jesus you can cast out demons you can lay hands on the sick and they shall recover you can win a victory it doesn't matter to god whether you have many or few if you'll come in the name of the lord little flock you can inherit the kingdom it's time to think outside the box we have in our minds that revival can only happen certain ways can i just tell you and i'm not going to be much longer if you don't mind me referring to it again but you've heard me say it we started the church in austin and god is blessed it's doing great under pastor shaw we started 16 daughter works that are still existing but look that's to you sounds like a a fairy tale you're thinking well that's

the bible belt well that's brother bernard well that's this well that's that let me tell you those daughter works that are still there one was started by a single man wasn't married one was started by a single woman wasn't married one was started by a married woman she was the primary preacher one was started by a couple in their 50s one minute most of them were started by people who never pastored before so we automatically exclude all those people they couldn't start a church he's not even married yet in our world with all the temptations that's a single woman we don't even know if women can preach that's a married woman you mean her husband isn't a preacher she they can't start a church like that stop putting limitations on us that god doesn't put on us yes use wisdom and discernment but little it's god's good pleasure to give you the kingdom and i'm not saying it's all easy one of those churches he is the fourth upci pastor to attempt to start a church another is the eighth upci pastor to attempt to start a church in that city one of our daughter

works is on their third pastor that's why it's good to have a daughter work until he grows up two of the daughter works we had to shut down because they got to a shutdown point and we restarted them both of those are on their fourth pastor but can i tell you some of those i mentioned they have their own building they have their own land some of them have 50 in attendance 75 in a tennis 100 and intense we would call them a well-established church but if you went on paper you would have never started or halfway through you would have closed it down and written it off as a total loss but somehow if we can change our paradigm and that's why i like the preaching points and the daughter works because you can't really lose you just restart them if they don't work one place you go somewhere else and start them again what i'm saying is god wants to give you your city god wants to give you your county god wants to give you your state don't find 10 reasons why it can't be done find one reason why it can

be done and get to work if the first plan fails start plan b if plan b fails start plan c if your top recruit doesn't want to do it go to your second string and third string but sooner or later something's going to happen god is going to give you the kingdom texas might be the bible belt but austin sure isn't five mile radius of our house and our church buddhist temple muslim mosque taoist temple i don't hesitate to mention everything but homosexual population hippie population travis county has a public beach paid for by the taxpayers only nude beach in the state of texas you have to be careful when you see the county park sign you have to know which park it is before you dare just park your car in the county park and pay your little fee one guest preacher made that mistake he and his wife were just looking for a nice park to relax in they left quicker than they entered now dallas has its own problems houston has his own problems it's tough to do we'll work for god anywhere but dallas has churches of 10 000 charismatic 20

000 houston has ten thousand twenty thousand austin doesn't have anything like that a huge charismatic church or a huge non-denominational church church in austin's like two thousand attendance and so please forgive me if this reference sounds too personal but i was meeting there pastor shaw and the network of new life ministers about 20 churches that either got started out of our church or we sent pastors or assistant pastors to existing churches so they're kind of about 20 churches in a kind of informal mentoring networking fellowship and i tell them you're not a voting bloc we don't care who you vote for for president or superintendent or whatever it's not it we just want to make sure we're connected we keep our culture we we transfer members and we talk about what's going on when that happens and all that and i got to thinking the church has grown since brother shaw has been passed it's grown significantly and uh please again forgive but he's built a church on the freeway there in austin 100 000 square feet it's not all built out but 12 acres on the freeway i asked my wife today is there

any other church in all of austin our two main freeways or any of the freeways any other church that has that visibility we couldn't think of any other god has blessed us so on a good sunday they'll have 800 on a special sunday like easter they'll have a thousand okay add up all those other churches together as i said some of them are still 10 20 30 but somewhere 50 75 100 125. so they will match the mother church so on a special occasion you could very easily have a couple thousand in those new life churches and of course if you count like denominations of baptism catholic you would probably add another thousand to their constituents but we're not into the numbers game i'm just i'm trying to i have a point here and so i got to thinking there have been some um oneness churches who decided the way to grow in a secular worldly pagan environment like austin is you got to minimize the distinctives but i got to thinking we believe in distinctives okay we preach jesus name baptism holy ghost you go to our church you will hear that you will

know that i remember a guy came to he came to our church after like two services he came to me he says there's a is there a difference between trinitarian baptism and jesus name baptism i said yes i explained it i said he said well i go to such and such a church and he named a church that would be won this apostolic heritage church he says i go there i said well your pastor will if you go ask him he'll baptize you he said i've been going there for a year but i never knew there was a difference so my point is and i don't throw stones i'm not being specific i'm generic enough that it could fit to many different situations so there are others who've said the way you attack a pagan environment like this if you kind of tone down certainly the holiness outward and make sure that's not ever an issue and then jesus name might be mentioned and etc you will grow a church i've seen a number of them not only did they not grow they closed down they don't even exist and they're not even in the

ministry and they're not even married i've seen a number of those they're going to build to the thousands and they have nothing i've seen some who are successful the way they have defined it and that's between them and god but you know what i don't think any of them have obtained 2 000 in their network so i'm not saying we're greater than anybody else what i'm saying is if you really want to be apostolic there is a way it might not be the way you're thinking but if you will explore some new testament ways to plant churches you can have and we're not trying to have the biggest church in town for bragging rights but you can reach as many people through godly apostolic methods as anybody else using any other method and the reason why forgive me for being so plain but the reason why i did that is i'm trying to tell you i know from personal experience not from hype as general superintendent if you want to reach your city building god's kingdom god's way on the message we believe is the kingdom of god there are ways to do so without

compromising your convictions without compromising your identity it may require you to do it differently than your thinking a threefold vision that i had number one i wanted to grow my church as big as it could possibly grow at the same time as we grew bigger we decided we're gonna plant as many other churches and i know there's some fear about doing that but i'll just tell you i'll hit this and leave it i'll tell you from experience yes you will transfer some yes you will lose some etcetera etcetera etcetera it won't be easy unexpected things will happen it will cost you but i will tell you if you plant many churches in the long run you'll have more people you'll reap a second harvest of backsliders and visitors that never got established in the mother church it doesn't hurt have to hurt the mother church it can actually increase the revival spirit and growth of the mother church it is not either or you can grow and plant at the same time brother daryl weber wherever you are i'm just adding to your message you preached a wonderful message i'm just throwing in a few

more commentaries that you can grow and plant and the third thing is you can partner i decided every home missionary that came in our area we were going to sponsor them and promote them we weren't going to hide them we had a fear that they would take away our people but we tried to partner if anybody else had a vision to reach the city then i want to be their friend i wanted to partner with them i wanted to help them i want to do it together isn't that what the united pentecostal church international is supposed to mean the whole gospel to the whole world by the whole church in your city in your town in your county in your state in your province grow as big as you can grow plant as many as you can plant and partner with everyone else who has the same vision why not god gives we must receive matthew 11 12 says the kingdom of heaven suffers violence the violent take it by force there are different translations with people having different meanings but one translation says the kingdom of god is forcefully advancing the kingdom of god

is advancing despite opposition and if you want to be part of it you can lay hold on it it's not for the weak and the fearful it's for those that want to seize the opportunity i'm saying you can do so let me just summarize there's so many testimonies i could give but general conference last year we saw a hindu lady converted baptized in jesus name filled with the holy ghost right here in this conference we saw a young girl healed who was deaf in one ear we saw a little boy healed of cystic fibrosis we saw a lady raised out of a wheelchair who facebooked my wife a week or two later to confirm the miracle i'm talking about right here in st louis we are seeing the miraculous all across our world reports are coming in the middle east all those countries that you're reading about in the news we have missionaries and national workers and we have ministries on the internet that are going into those countries people are getting baptized in jesus name receiving the holy ghost in iran in iraq in the kurdish part of iraq in azerbaijan in armenia in

afghanistan we are seeing we can't even tell you what exactly is going on but in the most difficult parts of the world the kingdom of god is advancing we're now in 206 now 207 nations around the world the kingdom of god is advancing in cuba a communist government for the first time we were able to have a youth camp this july 100 registered 49 received the holy ghost in cuba closed off communist country i'm telling you god is doing something i've got a hasten to a close quebec city we're planting a new church as a result of this conference philadelphia we're sending a a metro missionary newark new jersey one of the largest cities without a upc church now has a whole missions church montreal the least evangelized city of north america is exploding in revival something unprecedented is happening southern california two of our pastors have been elected to churches of other denominations and given the liberty to preach our message sacramento we're in the city limits we had zero upc churches the whole section is partnering together to start a church in the section in the city limits wichita falls not a large

metro hundred thousand started five daughter works in five years wichita falls texas world evangelism center this is shocking we outsource our our janitorial services carol is our head janitor my assistant rhonda morley has been talking to her about the lord and other workers there uh rhonda khan is my liaison to supervise that outsourced work and so we talk about problems talk about family talk about the lord ryan o'neill brother howell's assistant recently taught taught a bible study prayed with her in our own chapel carol received the baptism of the holy ghost she's getting baptized next week look hey i'm the general superintendent i don't mind telling you if we can have revival in world evangelism center i think we can have revival in every other place in the world why not stop thinking it can't happen fear not little flock it's the father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom let me just take the last four weeks before coming to general conference just a random sample the first week new york i was in washington dc teaching a seminar for metro missionaries preached spoke for brother staton and his group of leaders we are

in the process of build of purchasing our own united pentecostal building the first time ever in the district of columbia literally within sight of our nation's capital they have 26 home groups they have started five daughter works they have a 160 average in the main church 280 total you can grow and plant at the same time in one of the hardest places of north america washington dc so the next week i went to manchak texas it's just a daughter work until recently it was a preaching point south austin and you know what full of many races full of new converts hardly any pentecostal people in the building as far as outwardly being there for years record attendance of 139 god is raising up another church in south austin and and that's not the only one there are other great churches what i'm saying is something is happening so the next week i went to salt lake city utah the church is 10 years old you know what it was started at the general conference 2004 as a direct result of the conference as a metro church by brother frank bounds 10 years later it's pastored

by ron rice there are 120 people in that service from a number of different nations one received the holy ghost from a daughter work they started another was renewed in the holy ghost from their church that's from this general conference ten years ago a strong church in salt lake city utah the last week i preached in cedar park texas suburb of austin former daughter work now its own church two graduates of erston graduate school of theology are pastoring it husband and wife they're both ordained ministers both graduates they're the eighth pastor that went to the cedar park area to start a church it's not an easy place the sunday we were there they've been going seven years this year they had a breakthrough 17 have been baptized that sunday two weeks ago 83 were in attendance and one received the holy ghost now i deliberately didn't tell you about hundreds receiving the holy ghost because i'm telling you 1 2 17 it can happen in any place in north america at this general conference you've already heard it 4.3 million offering not counting the things that will be sold we will go over the goal

of 4.4 we will send 26 missionaries back probably another four or five families back the next night we had an offering for north american missions and even though there was nothing left we gave 334 thousand dollars in that offering plus a hundred thousand dollars a year in monthly commitments so if you just multiply that over several years you will see what a tremendous offering that is in other words if you count the offering tonight whatever it is we will have gone over five million dollars raised in this conference in saint louis with six or seven thousand people now i took longer than i thought when i tried to time it was much shorter so i'm sorry but here's the main thing and this is what i wrote several weeks ago i believe this is our time and i believe i have a word from the lord in acts chapter 1 just before jesus ascended to heaven the disciples gathered around said lord are you going to restore the kingdom to israel this time now it was eventually the will of god it is the will of god i think the millennial kingdom but they were

thinking in terms of their kingdom we've been patiently waiting and serving you is now the time we're going to sit on the thrones you know that the 12 apostles are going to sit on the 12 thrones and we're going to kick out the romans we're to establish the rule of the messiah is now the time and jesus said basically it's not for you to know the time it's really none of your business but i will tell you one thing in a few days i'm going to pour out the holy ghost and you're going to receive power and you're going to take my kingdom from jerusalem your home to judea your home province to samaria the people of a different ethnicity whom you despise and eventually it's going to go to the ends of the earth in other words jesus was saying i'm not going to tell you anything about your kingdom i'm not going to tell you when your plans are going to develop i'm not going to tell you when your timetable is going to mature i'm not going to answer all the questions you want to know but i'm going to tell you

one thing it's the right time for revival and i believe i have a word from the lord for the united pentecostal church international and the apostolic movement if you want to accept it i believe something is happening we've had some momentum small but steady growth the last few years record number of churches record number of finances record number of preachers it's been small it's been consistent we've turned the corner it's not an aberration it's not an exception but god is wanting to do something different than just a small steady incremental growth this i believe is our year of transformation if you will receive it it's the right time for revival i believe jesus is telling the church i'm not going to answer all your questions of all the things you want to know about but i will tell you only one thing it is your time to have revival it is your time for a day of pentecost it is your time for an outpouring of the holy ghost it's the right time for revival this is our time this is our day we need to pray for a transforming revival this is our day

to advance we've seen incredible breakthroughs in this conference i'm just confirming what we've already heard preach from brother mangan and brother weber what we've already seen with our own eyes we have broken through some barriers we have shattered some records we've gone into a new dimension i'm saying this is not an exception this is not a one-time thing this is the plan of god for a year of transformation this is a year to put the foot on the accelerator this is the year to accelerate revival this is a year to have explosive revival i feel i have not done a good job but i want to tell you right now this is a year of explosive revival if you will receive it i don't know exactly how when where but somebody's going to go home and have accelerated revival somebody's going to go home and have explosive revival something's going to break open in metro missions something is going to break open at global missions it's not time to think small it's not time to think incrementally it's not time to think one step here or there it's time to think transformation transformation acceleration explosion

will you receive it if you'll receive it it's the right time for revival it's the right time to start a daughter work it's the right time to start a preaching point it's the right time to preach revival it's the right time to have a breakthrough it's the right time to send a missionary back to overseas it's the right time to send a metro