In the Name of Jesus

well praise the lord everyone praise the lord oh there's a wonderful spirit of praise and worship here in the sanctuary hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah oh praise the lord praise the lord praise the lord you may be seated it's a privilege and an honor to be here tonight to speak to you thank you for the privilege of letting me serve as general superintendent i don't take it lightly and i hope that i'm doing the will of god and staying in the will of god i've been blessed by every part of this service as everyone has done an excellent job and of course my wife and several of my kids were involved in my pastor in heist in college brother dee said never to say you're proud so i'm thankful for my family i'm thankful for that they're serving god that's truly much more important than being general superintendent and i appreciate brother jones and brother mooney brother gleason our leaders our general board it's good to have the general superintendent of the assemblies of the lord jesus christ brother carpenter his wife with us amen it's good to have jay and carol barrington with us our auditor

for many years helping keep us straight they're our special guests tonight and there are many other special guests that we won't take time to mention but we are celebrating if you haven't figured it out the centennial of the jesus name movement now we believe that we go back to the new testament church we're not trying to invent something new but we are thankful that there was a great renewal and revival a hundred years ago of apostolic pentecostal message and experience and so tonight i'm not going to try to do something strange in fact you may hear some echoes of things you've already heard and that's okay because i think it's important for us to celebrate and reaffirm our identity as a movement that must be front and center of who we are we should never get tired of preaching about the name of jesus the apostolic doctrine the apostolic way of life that's why we exist as the united pentecostal church international in that regard i want to read a letter before i give a text this letter i will read almost the whole letter but omit a few identifying remarks and i'm not saying

that every phrase of this letter i would personally write but i think this message speaks to us it's written by a trinitarian pentecostal pastor who's not obviously part of our fellowship but he's attended a number of our services over the years and listen carefully to what he says dear brother bernard you do not know me sir i am not a member of your organization i have been an ordained minister for almost 40 years and pastored a fine church for the last 37 years i'm writing you today to do more than express my appreciation for the many occasions that your organization permitted us to participate in special events but to state an observation which your leadership may not fully comprehend every pentecostal organization is in a state of upheaval because of an escalating trend leadership in these denominations as well as my own has been deluded into believing that the faith once delivered to the saints is increasingly irrelevant in the modern era consequently all the pentecostal distinctives are vanishing from the religious landscape in america the rush to imitate the success of pastors who built their religious enterprises the rush is to imitate the success

of pastors who built their religious enterprises on compromise accommodation and political correctness i'm certain that in your position you are far more informed of the current apostasy than i am but i wanted you to know that there are many of us who look upon the upci as the last holdout of pentecostal worship pentecostal prayer pentecostal preaching and pentecostal anointing i believe laura wants to speak to us tonight the only reason for this letter is to encourage you as a truly pentecostal leader to resist the trends methodology and philosophies which have corrupted so many i pray that the upci will always be spirit-led evangelistic instead of entertainment-centered and always more spiritual than intellectual i pray that your movement will never replace the preaching of the word with a motivational lecture from a would be pop psychologist or life coach peddling the latest verbal therapy for raising a person's self-esteem truly the time left for us to minister is fading fast and if this is not me speaking if the upci is the only remaining vessel which refuses to be polluted with the popular godlessness of these times may the lord freshly pour out of you the

pure oil of his spirit on a church culture and lost world in desperate need of revival that's why we're here we're not here to condemn or attack anyone else let me be clear the upci has no corner on truth we don't believe that god works only through us we recognize god moves all around the world in many ways every country i believe he works in various groups to lead to truth to inspire to anoint we're not here to attack that's not the point we're not here to claim exclusivism that's not the point but we're here to say if god is indeed using us we better be who god has called us to be this is no time to change who we are this is no time to imitate somebody else this is time for the holy ghost field jesus name holiness apostolic pentecostal church to be what god has called us to be in this last hour praise god praise god unless you think that letter is out of left field the saint louis post-dispatch september 2nd 2013 they did not interview anybody at our headquarters but this is the title of their article pentecostals

edge away from speaking in tongues and they gave statistics of a large organization saying they had the lowest number of people spirit-filled speaking in tongues that they've recorded since 1995. so it's not just someone out in left field saying i think changes are going on this is now the subject of the newspaper that the pentecostals are changing but i'm here to say we need to stand firm on our identity in the lord jesus christ and i'll just make this note in passing for what it's worth truth is a seamless whole when you start picking at one piece the damage is not contained to one piece it unravels the whole garment i get disturbed when people say i believe the doctrine but i don't believe the standards we understand that principles must be applied in different cultures and different ways but the principles and teachings of god's word are not optional extras our christian lifestyle is part of our doctrine it's part of our identity we're not teaching superfluous extras at least i hope you're not in your church we are teaching what we firmly to believe to be the word of god if we compromise

one piece it takes us further than we intended to go and it will make us pay more than we intended to pay the best policy is stick with the word of god and godly convictions and godly leadership as we know it and understand it as god has revealed it to us let's stand for apostolic truth praise god i'm going to read from acts chapter 3 if you'd like to stand i'm going to be using a lot of scripture but at least perhaps we might want to stand for this one passage in acts chapter 3 the story of the lame man at the gate of the temple acts 3 verse 6 then peter said silver and gold have i none but such as i have give i thee in the name of jesus christ of nazareth rise up and walk you know the story the lame man was healed began walking leaping and praising god the crowds gathered and then noticed verse 16 the first half the apostle peter explained to the crowd what happened and his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong whom ye see and know i want to

preach for a little while i've asked the lord to anoint me beyond my ability whatever i can do i don't want to do that i want to do what the lord wants me to do i'm preaching in the name of jesus in the name of jesus praise god you may be seated the story of is told of thomas aquinas well-known scholar of the middle ages he visited rome for the first time he was overwhelmed by the churches the magnificence the treasures the the amazing prosperity of the medieval church pope innocent iv noticed this reaction was somewhat amusement that such a scholar would be so impressed with the magnificence of the church and so he remarked with a smile we can no longer say what peter and john said silver and gold have i none thomas aquinas quickly replied but neither can we say to the lame rise and walk that should be a sobering thought i am thankful for the blessings on the upci we ought to be in every country around the world we ought to have a payroll of millions of dollars to support our missionaries it does require a massive amount of

investment to do the work that god has called us to do in the 21st century so i'm not worried about that but i'm concerned about in everything we do we can get along without a lot of things but we must have the name of jesus and we must have the power of god we must be noted as the people of the name and it's got to be more than a label it's got to be more than a formula we must have the power of god working in our lives and in our churches i'm preaching in the name of jesus i'm not preaching about merely a formula it's not a set of magical words peter explained it clearly it's his name through faith in his name acts chapter 19 shows us very clearly what we're talking about there were some jewish leaders who decided to cast a demon out of a person and so they listened carefully to the message of the apostle paul they approached this spirit and said we adjure you in the name of the jesus that paul preaches they had the right name they had the right formula but the demons spoke

out and the man leaped upon them beat them up stripped them and left them fleeing naked for their lives the demons said jesus i know the demons do tremble at the sound of the name of jesus they do believe in one god and they tremble at the thought of god bringing justice and judgment in their realm and the demons said paul i know do you realize the demonic world does know the people that know jesus the demons know and respect apostolic ministry but of course the next phrase was but who are you they didn't have a personal relationship with the lord jesus christ they did not have faith in his name we must know the lord for ourselves when we walk the streets of our city when we drive down the highways do the demons as it were stand back and say stay out of the way don't storm up leave them alone or do they shrug their shoulders in essence and say well just another hypocrite he's got the label but don't worry about him what's our reputation in the realm of the spirit i'm not so concerned about our reputation in the natural

but we must be where it counts in the supernatural realm in heaven and earth and under the earth we must be known as those who bow to the lordship of jesus christ who are called by his name and who walk in his name what made the early church the early church was the identity of jesus christ the new testament church arose out of the jewish community the jews believed strongly here o israel the lord our god is one lord they were committed to that truth but what made the early church different from that group they had an encounter with jesus their lives were transformed by jesus christ they can never be the same when they repented of their sins they were baptized in the name of jesus and filled with his spirit that marked them as different why were they no longer just another sect of judaism it was because they took on the name they were not pagans because they served only one god but they were no longer simply jews because they bore the name they were told you can preach what you want but just omit the name but that was the

key mark of identity they were willing to suffer persecution for the sake of the name because what made the early church different from the rest of the world around them was precisely the name of jesus they came out of a jewish exclusive monotheism that taught one god for israel and it became a universal monotheism from an ethnic monotheism to a universal what am i saying it's because they recognize the one true god of israel was not just remote and lofty but he had come into our world in flesh and now he was a god of all nations now he was a god that's accessible now he's a god that walked in flesh what made the early church what they were was jesus christ and that is what makes our church today now you've probably heard some of the things i'm going to say you may even heard me teach on this but if you look in the word of god the key point of identity was the name of jesus if you study in the old testament the significance of the divine name god's name represents his identity it represents his character to know god's

name is to know god to know god's name is to know what he is like what his character is like we see this in exodus chapter three the very foundational event that forged israel as a nation and really was the basis of the old covenant which underlies the old testament god spoke to moses in exodus chapter 3 from the burning bush and said i want you to go to pharaoh face the mightiest king of your world face him down and deliver my people israel from bondage in egypt moses quite naturally recalled for this impossible task and he said who am i to do such a thing it's interesting god did not give him a lecture in self-esteem it's okay moses you can do it you can do more than your thing you're brave you're strong no god in essence is welcome to think of it moses you're right you don't have much to offer but here's the difference i will be with you and so the logical question is will god uh who are you now he phrase it in terms of the people who shall i say is sending me but he need the

affirmation for himself and that's where god said in exodus 3 and 14 i am that i am you just tell the people i am has sent you we know from studying hebrew that jehovah or yahweh is from the hebrew word to be meaning he is so when god's people call on him they say he is but when god speaks for himself he says i am in other words i am and always will be i am the eternal one god alone does not draw his life from anything else everyone else has to qualify their existence i am because of this i am if when and so forth but god simply says i am the self-existent one the ever living one i am my own source of life i am my own source of power i don't need anything else or anybody else i am who i am every other title no matter how magnificent actually is very limiting perhaps the most powerful title in the world today i'm not so sure but probably still president of the united states but to say barack obama is the president of the united states is a very limiting title

because it becomes immediately obvious he's not the president of russia he's not the president of syria he's not the president of iran god has no such limiting titles he simply says i am perhaps you'd like to put a blank line because god can be whatever he wants to be god can be whatever his people need him to be if we're struggling with sin he says i am the savior if you're sick in your body or your mind he says i am your healer if you're hungry tonight he says i am the bread of life if you're thirsty i am the living water if you need direction i am the light of the world i am the rock i am the king i am the judge i am the first i am the last and that means i am everything else in between oh hallelujah praise god i am who i am you see when you know god's name you know who he really is exodus chapter 3 god elaborated on that revelation of the name in verse 6 he told moses in continuation of this point he says i appeared unto abraham unto isaac unto

jacob by the name of god almighty but by my name jehovah was i not known to them verse 6 wherefore say unto the children of israel i am the lord that means jehovah i will bring you out from under the burden of the egyptians i will rid you out of their bondage i will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments notice what he's saying i don't think he's saying abraham didn't know the name jehovah because according to genesis abraham did use that name but what he is saying abraham understood me as the almighty god when he called jehovah when he spoke of jehovah he thought of the creator the father the lord of all the ruler the almighty one but he had never had an occasion to be in bondage and need deliverance he did not know what all i was capable of doing because he never experienced it but from now on when you israelites speak of jehovah you won't just say oh that's our creator oh that's our heavenly father no you will say that's the god when we were in bondage he brought us out that's the god

who delivered us that's the god who gave us a second chance that's the god who made us a new people that's the redeeming god the delivering god to know his name is to know that he is the deliverer that he is the redeemer that he is the savior god's name is associated with this power i'll i'll be quick here tonight with these points but in exodus chapter nine god gave a message to pharaoh through moses he said i raised you up for this purpose pharaoh if you would have listened to me i could have shown my greatness in a wonderful way but since you resisted me i still will show my greatness and so he explained in exodus 9 and 16 he told the message and in very deed for this cause have i raised thee up for to show in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth his name is associated with his power and that actually happened when the spies came into the promised land they went to the house of rahab she said we've heard about your god we heard what he did to pharaoh

we heard what he did to your enemies his name was associated with his power praise god his name is also associated with his authority he told israel i will send you an angel to lead you and most scholars think that angel was actually a manifestation of god and thus it's capitalized in the text but if you read in exodus 23 and 21 god said beware of him and obey his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions for my name is in him if we possess god's name we have his power but we also have his authority to act according to his will i don't have time to go into all that but one more point i'll make when solomon prayed the prayer of dedication at the temple in 1st kings chapter 8 he made this significant statement he said god i know you can't be confined to this earth you can't even be confined to heaven even the heaven of heavens cannot contain you so how could this little house do anything but he said wait just a minute of this house you said my name will be here when we

come into this house and pray in your name i ask that you reveal your glory that you manifest your presence that you hear our prayer god's name is where he manifests his glory it's where he reveals his presence yes god is omnipresent but when we gather in his name and we call his name in faith something happens we have the very attention of almighty god his glory fills the house even as it did at that dedication prayer in the new testament we see the same thing i may have messed up these people with the slide so they just have to do the best they can i'm not really sure but in the new testament the saul of tarsus he was a jew who believed in one god hero israel the lord our god is one lord he believed that he was doing the will of god by persecuting the christians but on the road to damascus god struck him with a light from heaven blinded him arrested him in effect paul this saul knew he was dreadfully wrong in his thinking so we went back to the basics it's a good thing to find out

what the foundation is the foundation is who is your god what is his name he said who are you lord i thought on you but i'm wrong the lord did not say well the premise of your question is off there are really several of us up here i need to introduce you to several more that's not what he said he said the premise is right deuteronomy 6 4 is still right you need a fresh revelation and i'm gonna give you a name that will tell you how your god is working today god said from heaven i am jesus the very one you're persecuting is the one you should be worshiping a revelation of the name of jesus if you read the acts accounts carefully there's three of them you will find he saw a vision of the resurrected and glorified christ and that's why he could say with such confidence jesus christ is the image of the invisible god colossians 1 15.

that's why he could say colossians 2 9 in him dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily that's why he could say in second corinthians 4 6 that god has shown a light the knowledge of the glory of the gospel of god in the face of jesus christ this church was founded on a revelation of the almighty god through the name of jesus christ and so the name of jesus represents god's character god's power god's authority god's presence you can do your own research and prove that but the name of jesus literally means jehovah's savior yahweh is salvation all that god revealed himself to be in the old testament is incorporated in jesus with this one great revelation the god of the old testament our heavenly father and creator has become our savior in the lord jesus christ praise god what i'm saying there's salvation in the name of jesus peter preached on the day of pentecost whoever calls on the name of the lord shall be saved acts 2 21 he quoted from joel for joel the lord was jehovah but the apostle peter just made the transition the jehovah of the old testament

is the jesus of the new he preached in acts 4 12 neither is there salvation in the other for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved he preached that the gentiles acts 10 43 in his name whoever believes in him should receive remission of sins i'm here to say salvation is in the name of jesus we're right to preach jesus christ and him crucified that's how the world is saved in the name of jesus i'll tell you something else there's holiness in the name of jesus colossians 3 17 says whatever you do in word or deed do it all in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks to god and the father by him we're not denying god in the father but we're exalting the name of jesus because god has chosen that name as the name of revelation but let me say this as a pastor i had guidelines for leadership and public ministry very similar to our articles of faith only more specific and detailed in certain areas and those guidelines for leadership were not just for preachers it wasn't just licensed ministers but everyone

who had a public role and it wasn't just for them it was the model for every mature saint that was the expectation for the church so i believe in that we have guidelines for ministers i believe in that we've got to have guidelines we've got to be specific about what we expect but let me say this and you don't have to read anything to it you just take this no rule can solve the problems of the human heart but there is something higher than any rule and it's the name of jesus let me tell you what i mean when it comes to prayer we say we should pray in jesus name that's right prayer is word and deed when we baptize we say we should baptize in jesus name that's right it's both word and deed but don't limit this verse to that but when you sit down and have a conversation with your ministerial friend can you do it in a way that's compatible with the invocation of the name of jesus in that conversation when you read a book when you surf online when you sit down and watch some kind of dvd

with your family can you do so in a way that's compatible with the glory of god in the face of jesus christ jesus name represents his manifested presence it represents his divine glory whatever we do wherever we go whatever conversation whatever activity if i'm alone just by myself can i do what i'm doing in a way that's consistent with glorifying and uplifting and harboring the name of jesus if we took that seriously that would be more strict than anything we can imagine in fact i don't mind telling you i can easily live up to pretty much any rule we pass but i'm still striving to live up to what i just said is everything i do consistent with the name of jesus is everything i do consistent with invoking the blessing of the lord on my activity or my speech or my attitude or my spirit that's why i say holiness is going to be found in the name of jesus not in a formula but in understanding that name and knowing who he really is evangelism is in that name luke 24 47 remission repentance and remission of sins would be preached in his

name among all nations beginning at jerusalem why are we so intent on reaching every nation with the gospel why do we push so hard to reach every city every town every individual because we believe every human being needs to know the name of jesus not just to hear it but we believe they need a personal relationship with the lord jesus and the power of the holy spirit we really do believe the whole gospel to the whole world by the whole church and our motivating factor is the name of jesus if it wasn't for the name there are plenty of people that are doing good around the world they don't need us but we have the name in the name of jesus i feel the holy ghost here tonight hallelujah hallelujah in the name of jesus what does god want to do in the next few minutes i was reading frank eward you heard a little synopsis a hundred years ago at that very occasion when he baptized glenn cook glenn cook baptized him a mighty revival began in los angeles listen to what frank you had wrote one of the greatest most startling characteristics of

that great revival was that the vast majority of the new converts were filled with the holy ghost after coming up out of the water they would leave the tank speaking in other tongues many were healed when they were baptized if we would preach the name of jesus in its full significance you're going to see that happen in your church today i've seen people delivered of drugs coming up out of the waters of baptism i've seen people healed coming up out of the waters of baptism i'm preaching in the name of jesus it's still happening today oh hallelujah we are here because of that kind of revival 100 years ago that's why we're here today let me just give you a few examples venezuela our second largest mission field last year added 199 churches and 200 preaching points 399 new works in one year it can happen pakistan our fourth largest field 160 000 constituents in a muslim environment a middle eastern country that i will not name we didn't have any works there in fact it is illegal in that country to convert to christianity and it's illegal to try to convert someone you can

receive the death penalty for both but god did a sovereign work an immigrant from that country was converted in canada he had a burden to reach his people he began preaching online he contacted people now he works full-time teaching and preaching online he tells the people don't tell anyone outside your immediate family but in your home at the designated times have church and i'll preach to you online he says when you're ready to be baptized take a vacation to a neighboring country we'll meet you there and we'll baptize you in jesus name recently we conducted an online crusade in that language with several preachers preaching in the online crusade 42 of those native speakers received the baptism of the holy spirit even the internet can be sanctified in the name of jesus a follow-up tour to the neighboring countries resulted in 58 being baptized in jesus name another 55 receiving the holy ghost i was in madagascar a few weeks ago our third largest field what a wonderful opportunity to preach to 15 000 people gathered for their national conference 46 ministers ordained when we preached at the end we would turn the service over

to a national evangelist to give the altar call hundreds would line up across the front and he said put a robe between you and the next group and when everybody was lined up repenting ready to receive he would have all the ministers and their spouses to line up in front of each row and lay hands on them when they finished they would record the name and contact information of the people that receive the holy ghost by careful count 2075 we're baptized with the holy spirit brother putnam was there brother richards was there it's such a joy to hear the malagasy people praise god they sing with such fervor they dance they get excited it's so encouraging i wish we could get a taste of that in our general conference the song leader he'd be jumping up and down for all his word he's going as much as he can when he's exhausted they bring in the next song leader when he's exhausted they bring the next one then they get the general youth president he comes he's pretty energetic then they get the ladies present she comes she's interjected then they get one of the

general board members he comes another general board member then they get the national superintendent he's leading them then they get the missionary he leads them then they get the regional director for africa and he has to come up there and dance and then they keep looking at the corner the international general superintendent he's the only one left but he's too sophisticated so they're not going to ask him directly but they keep worshiping they keep jumping they keep dancing they keep looking over there i looked at my wife i said would you like to go no she she prefers me and so i said okay here goes all right hallelujah let's worship the lord hallelujah go ahead you can see it we ought to worship show it right now it's real it's happening god is doing it oh hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah oh yes this is apostolic revival this is jesus name revival this is 21st century this is the united pentecostal church we have a right to praise the lord we have a right to rejoice we have a right to dance and shout oh hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah oh yes if the malagasies can

worship god we can worship god oh hallelujah hallelujah praise god praise god praise god hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah in the name of jesus in the name of jesus hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah oh he's worthy praise god praise god hallelujah praise god hallelujah praise god praise god praise god hallelujah i want to tell you it's not just happening in africa just be seated for a minute if i were smart i'd probably just let it go right now but i want to bring it home just a little bit just for a few minutes i'm pretty much through but i want to give you i want to give you a little bit more to shout about it's not just happening in pakistan you know i could tell you and it's not just the typical measurements we could talk about compassion services international which is doing humanitarian efforts and we're some of the first responders because we've got 40 000 churches on the ground that can distribute instantly we could talk about new beginnings doing amazing work with international adoptions we could talk you already heard about the youth congress as conservatively as possible eighteen thousand but we

really know there was another thousand or two more of pentecostal young people dressed modestly gender distinction they're not wanting to please the world they're saving up money doing fundraisers all year long to come to church something right is happening when 18 000 teenagers sacrificed to come to church for a week don't tell me everybody's compromising i know there's some compromise but we are the people of the name and we're not gonna change we're not gonna give up we're not gonna let go and we have a generation of young people and young ministers who are just as strong as anybody else you heard brother cunningham give miracles i'll just say quebec 2010 a preteen girl who was crippled the doctor said she would never walk two weeks after we prayed her for her she was walking completely 2011 alaska 24 year old girl born with severely crossed eyes surgery at age six that made it even worse after 18 years god instantly healed her 2012 while the word was going for jackson tennessee camp meeting a woman with a deaf ear instantly the ear pop and she began to hear 2013 i was preaching a little

home mission church lake havasu city on arizona almost everybody in the church was in recovery or needing to be in recovery three of them received the holy ghost that's a miracle to see people delivered in our society in a small home missions church setting i had the privilege of preaching in the four largest cities of the u.s this year just so happened new york city there's great revival last year i did the dedication for that beautiful church in long island i preached for brother davis and that in brooklyn down in the heart of brooklyn for brother mitchell one of the congresswoman in attendance had received the holy ghost in his church these are powerful churches of hundreds and thousands of believers of every race in the heart of the new york metro area we are having strategic revivals not accidental revivals but at intentionally planting churches in hard areas or strategic areas and we're seeing results los angeles i got to participate in the 100 year anniversary of the arroyo seiko camp meeting what a joy in that outdoor service to see people baptized in jesus name just like they were 100 years ago preached

in chicago you're going to hear from rick gonzalez raising up a church in a tough area of town former gang members it's nice to have somebody like that as your personal bodyguard as you're being escorted to the platform houston texas i preached there do you realize we have well over 100 established churches if you count the preaching points and the daughter works there are three sections of south texas and probably two of texas that come into that metro area we would have approximately 200 works total in the greater houston metro area we are making a difference don't say the church is being defeated don't say we're not having revival probably nobody here in this arena is saying that but if the thought ever crossed your mind we are the people of the name of jesus i preached in washington dc what a privilege to see us purchase that building the first property inside the dc the district itself within view of the nation's capital we have an established united pentecostal church that's planting daughter works throughout the city as well as strong churches in the suburbs not only that my focus of course is the

upci but i've preached for a few in other apostolic gatherings hosted or approved by upci ministers in places like los angeles chicago district of columbia miami fort lauderdale hartford connecticut i'm not just preaching for anybody and everybody but people who are desiring an apostolic emphasis there are people who have our same doctrine the same lifestyle and dress commitments in the apostolic movement and i'm preaching for them and there's an open door they're asking us to send ursan graduate school instructors to train their ministers and their board members they're asking us to send pentecostal publishing house representatives with our literature to their conferences i was sitting there with a group of those ministers and their spouses and one of them it was at a lunch and one of them spoke up and he said brother bernard as you know many organizations are backsliding and even some of our own organizations are backsliding but we look to the upci to stand strong because we know the upci will stand for apostolic identity that stirred my soul and so as i come to a close acts 15 14 the first general conference it was the first general conference

of the united apostolic pentecostal church international lower case not incorporated but it was the first general conference of the united apostolic pentecostal church they voted to let gentiles join the church it's pretty shocking but they did it and bishop james got up he said simon peter has told us how god visited the gentiles to take out of them a people for his name something stirred within me when i was preparing this message and i thought we are those people we have a few jewish believers here but 99 of us are gentiles we are actually the people they voted in at the first general conference we are the people of the name and you know when i get to heaven i've often thought who would i like to talk to first paul wrote a lot of letters i remember brother harry says i'm telling me and i was traveling behind the iron curtain before the fall of communism brother says him with his dry wit brother bernard it's so wonderful that you're a writer because if they arrest you and put you in jail your ministry will just go right on how wonderful thank you brother

chism i know you're here i appreciate your support so maybe i would talk to paul what was it like to write inspired scripture what was it like to preach in athens to those philosophers and match wits and quote quote their own poets against them what was it like to know greek philosophy and challenge them on their home turf you know what was it like to cast out demons in in ephesus what was it like or the apostle peter any preacher worth his salt would love to know what was it like to preach the first sermon and all the other apostles the whole general board standing with you saying amen and 3 000 people converted that day what was it like but i got to thinking i've got it all wrong i really feel honestly and i'm almost embarrassed to say this but i'll draft in brother jones brother moony brother gleason in the reference i believe those apostles i believe that bishop james will come and say what was it like to preside over the last day church the last year or two before the coming of the lord was it was like brother jones

to preach overseas in zambia to those people what was it like to minister now i never had that opportunity i don't know what it was like what was it like to be in madagascar i hear what you're telling me but i never saw 15 000 malagasy speaking in tongues and dancing across and singing in harmony what was it like i believe the early church is talking to the united pentecostal church to the assemblies of the lord jesus christ to all other believers who love his name and say you are the people of the name in these last days let's stand together something is stirring within me i believe god wants to confirm his word on this first night i'm not noted for long altar calls i'm noted for getting straight to the point if there's a preacher here or spouse you feel challenged and i'm not saying everybody has to come i don't really care who comes but if you feel challenged that god is