Our Field

a couple of weeks ago in the state of washington i was in a service where the district superintendent brother raymond woodson ministered on that friday night april 9th he ministered with the title the field factor talking about the fields and how ripe that they are and how god is ready to send forth laborers during that message god prompted some thoughts and ideas into my heart and spirit brother woodson among other good points made this metaphorical statement and phrase he said we need to look out our window to see the field that is before us immediately as i thought of that phrase i thought of what we would see if we were to look out the windows of our building here at 901 barracks view and the inspiration came to me of covering those fields are those neighborhoods those people those homes with prayer and evangelism and that's i believe where god would want us to go and where we are going to go in the book of acts believers went to the upper room to receive the holy ghost far empowerment one empowerment that they needed one dimension of the holy ghost that come to them and comes to us is the dimension of empowerment for salvation and we've worshiped about that tonight they were going to receive they did receive the power of salvation empowerment to live victoriously over sin to be able to reflect christ let me just lay this in your heart the god that saved you out of sin that same power has the power to keep you now from sin no matter how evil this world gets and we look around us and we see that evil and the lewdness and the brazenness of sin and and even laws trying to be past that really highlight uh sin certainly do not hide it all of that pressing in around us but the power that saved us from sin is able to keep us from sin that keeps us from having to worry about i wonder if i'm going to sin today i wonder if i'm going to sin next week i wonder if i'm going to make it in the rapture now i know that we need to make sure of those things and it will not be by our own power but i will say we're going to be a victorious church if we keep our life under the blood if we stay repentant if we ask for a clean heart and a right spirit and we live according to this book the word of god there is going to be a victorious church without a wrinkle without a spot without a blemish thank god for the upper room experience of empowerment of salvation and over sin but jesus also explained when he was instructing them before they went to the upper room that he was going to give them the holy ghost and it would involve them being empowered he said to be witnesses to be witnesses and he named where and there's no limitation to that because he closed it out by saying unto the uttermost part he started with where they were in jerusalem and moved out from there you could just trace the map he started at jerusalem and just went out from there judea samaria and he just said then into the uttermost part or to all the world so our empowerment of this holy ghost salvation the reasons that we received the holy ghost is so that one we would have the empowerment of salvation and then secondly that we would have the empowerment of being his influencers or his witnesses so we go to the altar to receive the holy ghost for salvation but it is for more than that thank god that it is that but i'm going to place the emphasis tonight on that second empowerment which the holy ghost is far more than salvation it is for the purpose of reaching and seeking and saving the lost if our mindset is only that the purpose of the holy ghost is salvation we would breed and become lazy believers who are content to just sit on a church bench and come to a church performance and just wait for the rapture but i thought as we were singing that song here i am to worship there are other people that need to be singing that song there are neighbors in our community there are friends and loved ones and work associates and people in this very immediate vicinity who could be singing that song and maybe they are only waiting for an invitation i read again today just another statistic by lifeway research it says 82 of the unchurched are likely to attend church if they are invited yet only 2 percent of church members invite 82 percent are likely to attend no not everybody but if we will extend an opportunity to an encounter with jesus to attend a service to have a bible study just that research alone shows and we we know that god has put a blank inside of every human life that can only be filled by an experience with him so we're really working to an advantage we don't need to think we're at a disadvantage of trying to talk to somebody about god really they've already got that blank inside of them that needs and can only be filled by an encounter and experience with the lord god almighty so the question is not are we witnesses or should we witness and disciple others those are not the questions but the question is what kind of a witness are we are we infrequent witnesses are witnesses that hardly ever do it and by witnessing that's a big umbrella i'm talking about tonight it could be by just a common conversation about god it could be going to some door-to-door visitation it could be writing a note it could be a bible study there are so many things that this could be but the question tonight is what kind of a witness am i the mindset of receiving the holy ghost to be his witness it flows exactly to god's purpose for his church god's purpose for the church in other words let's bring it down home why does apostolic pentecostal church exist in answer to that question there was a survey done not here but across a christendom there was a survey that was done some years ago and they surveyed in over a thousand churches surveying both leaders pastoral leaders and membership the chur here's how the church members answered the ones that were surveyed 89 said the church's purpose is to take care of my family's needs and my needs and that's not wrong it should do that and 11 of the members said the purpose of the church is to win the world for jesus christ now when the pastoral leaders were interviewed and surveyed here's how their answers fell out 80 90 of pastors said the purpose of the church is to win the world to jesus christ 10 said the purpose of the church is to mainly care for the needs of the members so it was exactly the opposite leadership had one mentality and membership had a different mentality that causes confusion as to why does the church exist the answer is all of us need to be on the same page the pulpit the pastor the pew the membership all of us need to be on the same page it's not one or the other of those it is both of those are purposes of the church but jesus said it's for your salvation go to that upper room wherever your upper room is for them it was in jerusalem for us it was at an altar one day or some place of prayer where we receive the holy ghost and then the second reason is for us to be witnesses we have received that empowerment and so the purpose of the church is not only for us to go through performances of church services and not only to have our needs met although they are and in this service tonight i believe it's happening and it happened i know sunday people's needs members needs were were met that is crucial and that is important but that is only part of our story the purpose of the church is and it's our purpose and our reason for existing is to win the lost and to perfect the saints son i see the winning of the lost as the seeking part of jesus statement and then the perfecting of the saints as the saving although we don't do the saving but we help people to be saved as we perfect them by the word of god and we are perfected by services and the spirit of the lord and the spiritual disciplines that we implement into our lives these are the two main objectives i i don't want membership or pastoral leadership to be in question about why does apc really exist there it is right there to win the lost and then as paul said in ephesians 4 that second one comes from ephesians 4 for the perfecting of the saints for the edifying of the body of christ in other words to help us to stay saved to make us complete and to be mature these are the objectives now do we do a whole lot of other things oh yes we do but everything else we do should flow to those objectives right there we just recently had a great men's meeting last weekend it provides a social time it provides that time of fellowship there was training and there was teaching and the reason for a bible study like tonight or any service like tonight it should flow to these two main objectives and we don't have to be teaching or preaching a message about evangelism like i'm doing tonight we don't have to be singing a song about winning the lost for that to be happening but underneath the theme the underflowing current of every sermon and every service is so that we can do what jesus wanted us to do as a church to seek and to save that which is lost now i will quickly tell you that it's very likely that neither one of those objectives will ever be totally fulfilled i wish it were that everybody in this world on trumpet rapture day will be saved that seems very unlikely and we know from scripture that there will be people who will be reprobate and will turn their back on god the church will never be absolutely perfect in this life but that's not going to stop the church that must not stop us i guess we could throw up our hands and say well what's the use we'll never be able to fully fulfill those things but i'm going to tell you what the church is doing a good job we need to do a better job but we're doing a good job of reaching the and winning the lost and helping people to stay safe look at all of us we're still here something or somebody or some service or some bible lesson or some sermon or somebody helped us to stay strong in the lord and here after a number of years however many years it has been that you have been serving the lord and you have been saved thank god for the church and for the purpose of the church to win the lost and really when you look at that somebody can't the saints the body can't be perfected if they're not in the body and so to win the loss to seek and to save and really these give us clear directions somebody said this we must know what our business is and know what is none of our business as the church and so we need to we need to vote and we need to do our duties of citizenship but the business of the church is not politics stay on the mission of the church that's our mission that's god's vision we've got to be mindful of what is the business of the church and so we're trying to make sure and as a leader i have attempted to do this our leaders and departments have done this in ministries and and we have spoken about this often in our leadership meetings every ministry every program every department every service every event is a means to reaching those two purposes they are not just an end in themselves it's not just enough to say oh we we had a good bible study or we had a good lesson or we we had a good sunday service with good music it's important to have that but that's not our ma those are means to the end of helping somebody if somebody is here tonight or watching online the this service is directed towards somebody receiving the baptism of the holy ghost if you need that tonight or repenting or maybe somebody that has the holy ghost needs to be strengthened this is a means it's not enough just to say we had a good bible study but what did that service produce and of course leadership is involved and responsible for trying to make sure there is fruit produced but you know what so is everybody that's a part of that service to allow the spirit of god to help them and so if we will recognize that the holy ghost is for empowerment whether salvation are witnessing we will seek it consistently and i encourage you to seek it and pray it that the empowerment god i want the empowerment of your spirit and when i say empowerment it could mean the miraculous and many times that's where we tie that word to but it's not just we need empowerment to make it through this life we need the comfort of the holy ghost we need the peace of the holy ghost we need the wisdom of the holy ghost to empower us to help us through this life and if we're seeking the holy ghost that empowerment mentality will make all the difference you know it'll make a difference in how we worship it'll make a difference in whether we worship it'll make a difference in how and whether we pray it'll make a difference in how we receive the teaching and the preaching of the word of the lord and so it's important that we seek the empowerment of god you know we call our church gatherings church services service means to serve others and we do that while we're here but probably in the truest sense the church really begins its service when we leave this spiritual upper room and we begin to serve in this world by our example or by our help or by our prayer for somebody or reaching out and giving to others and we carry this impera empowerment out to a lost world to witness to love and to reach out to them some time ago brother jack cutting him who now pastors out on the east coast he formerly was our north american missions director he wrote an article and here's some of the quotes from that article it is time for the apostolic church to put reaching the lost on the front burner and before i read on i just just think about this and if you would apply this in other words has it been on the front burner of your life today or this week you know it's one thing to read these things and know these things it's another thing to live them out and i have the task tonight of bringing it to our attention that we are empowered as witnesses and the mindset and the purpose of the church is to be a witness it's time for the apostolic church to put reaching the lost on the front burner seeking and saving lost men and women must burn within the hearts of every child of god he also said and this isn't going to be up there we are never free from our responsibility to reach the lost until you and i meet a man or woman for whom christ did not die it's time he went on in this article it's high time that we awake out of our slumber repent for our lethargy and indifference and allow his passion for reaching the lost to grip our hearts awake out of any slumber have you ever fallen asleep and didn't mean to oh lord my wife is laughing right now we've had this very experience this very week and i know when folks fall asleep in church they didn't mean to for a thing they didn't just mean to they didn't mean to they didn't mean it's true spiritually also we didn't intend to disregard the lost we don't detest the lost we don't want them to go to hell but something has rocked us to sleep and it could be the comfort of a good church it could be the comfort of a good lifestyle about which there is nothing wrong but brother cunningham says it here it's high time that we awake out of our slumber would you put that back up there brother eric it's high time that we awake out of our slumber repent for our lethargy and indifference and allow his passion his passion i'm gonna tell you the lord is passionate about it his passion for reaching the lost he was so passionate about it that he was either on his way or sitting on a hillside about near jerusalem and jesus literally started weeping over that city if somebody would have passed by not knowing what was happening they would have wondered what is wrong with that strange man is he over emotional what's got into him what's wrong with him but he was so taken by their the waywardness of those who lived in in that city the israelites the jewish nation as a whole really that he began to weep over them with a passion to be able to reach them or help them and he could see what was ahead folks we know we don't know everything but we know about hell and we know what's ahead for people that are lost we know that that's what jesus could see the destruction of jerusalem ahead for that city we know about that and so a passion gripped him i'll just admit to you something needs to get a hold of me because i don't know that i've ever set in one of our windows that looks out over four state and briarview and i have literally wept over that now i've been in services where i've thought about my neighbors and and maybe that counts maybe it does and uh i remember a youth convention many years ago where our our neighbors came to my mind in my heart and my face was down in in that on that floor and god and you can tell it made an impact because i still remember it and i've tried to put action to that passion i've tried i haven't succeeded it bothers me when i think about eternity and those good neighbors for several years those good neighbors that are so good and so good but it bothers me it bothers me it needs to bother me it needs to bother me say brother wilfred it may not be your fault i know that it may not be but i've got to take away every little reason that it could be my fault and the weeping over a pack that's that passion that he was writing about there and in the same article brother cunningham gave some prayer points that can help create an evangelism mindset and lifestyle and you have heard these before very likely i've used them before in a bible study praying these things first of all god make me a soul winner that's a legal prayer for every holy ghost filled person to pray throw out that excuse that that's just not me if you've got the holy ghost it is you and for somebody to feel like it's not their experience that puts a question mark about what kind of experience because every true holy ghost experience is an experience of empowerment for salvation and for witnessing god make me a soul winner aren't you glad god hears us we know he hears us and when we pray these prayers and i'm just going to ask you to add these prayers to your prayer listing and the prayer points that you pray and whenever you pray god make me a soul winner god fill all altars with lost men and women repenting of their sins aren't you glad there was an altar for you to repent at wherever whatever that altar was maybe it's a literal altar or maybe you made your own altar somewhere god fill our altars with lost men and women repenting of their sins let our baptistry be worn out by the traffic of sinners having their sins washed away just lined up down those up those stairs down those stairs out here lined up to have their sins washed away that's the will of god there are enough lost people just in this south county area to fulfill that prayer request right down right now where we have to switch off persons that baptize have to switch off baptizing let baptisms happen every day it happened at youth convention they baptized some people in the swimming pool there at the hotel as god got a hold of their their lives and they wanted to be baptized and then another prayer point pour out your spirit upon every hungry soul in our city our state our nation our world release it god he wants to do it he said in the last days i'm gonna pour my spirit out upon all flesh i don't know that this is so much a request because we don't necessarily have to request it because god's already promised it what we need to do in a prayer as a prayer point is to agree with it god you want to pour your spirit out instead of fearfully thinking about i don't know if they'll want the holy ghost we don't know that but think about god's promise he wants to give that person whether they want it or not if you're watching tonight or if you're here god wants to give you the baptism of the holy ghost it's his promise he said in the last days i will pour it out on all flesh every cousin you have every unsaved son or daughter you have every grandparent you have every friend every neighbor it's the will of god it's the promise of god it's the promise and again i would say when you pray these prayer points and the others that you pray in your personal prayer life just know this just pray it under this auspice god's hearing this god is hearing this jesus said john 4 35 there's a harvest say not ye in other words do not say there are yet four months and then comes harvest this is jesus talking behold i say unto you lift up your eyes look on the fields for they are white already to harvest what was he doing he was correcting their mindset they had a mindset that it might happen but it's probably going to happen later one translation puts it this way do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends in other words until some other time that person probably won't visit until some other time that person probably won't take a bible study until some other time or from some other person we tend to do what the disciples did putting it off there are yet four months and then there can be a harvest jesus said to them look around you really look around you the vast fields and numbers of human souls are ripening all around us and are ready now for the reaping there are souls all around us that are ripe for the harvest there are people that you and i know that are ripe for the harvest and again yes i know so many times we we we think of the ones who have been very adamant against or who have been very resistant but i'll say something about those that may change too but we tend to let them scare us off from witnessing to others who are right jesus said those fields are right jesus never tells a lie he never exaggerates anything he said the fields are ready our fields our family fields our neighborhood fields the fields around apc jesus said they are ripe and they are ready to harvest and you will notice in this context of this lesson jesus was giving he doesn't say anything that there's anything wrong with the field there wasn't anything wrong with the crops in the field or the harvest the only problem he points out is the number of laborers he said are few that's the only problem that jesus came up with as he looked at this context of life and he called it a harvest you know that's a that's a term of faith right there because a harvest is something that is brought in they were it was still in the field but he called it a harvest somebody is still bound in a and under an addiction but god calls it a harvest somebody has said no many many times to an invitation to an encounter with god a church service or a bible study but he still calls it a harvest he called it a harvest when maybe they had very seldom if ever acknowledged god or spoke words about faith or about the bible or about god but he still called it a potential a harvest sometimes don't we see how bad or how evil or how deep in sin how bad they are but he's still calling it a harvest a harvest and there if you look on a field there is going to be some some rows of weed and grain that are closer to you and there's going to be other rows that are on the other end of the field it doesn't matter where they are in the field how close they are to an altar or how far away they are from an altar and from god it's still a harvest it's still a harvest the person that may have cursed you or cursed god or cursed you for your faith in god they're still a harvest and god loves them and god can make a way for us can give us an open door we must get to that harvest and i just wrote down a few things about what a harvest looks like to me a harvest is somebody have an encounter with god somebody having the relief of their sins being washed away their guilt being removed their life totally changed families of this church growing and maturing in the lord family members who are the critical stage of ripening themselves and their life and their destiny hangs in the balance a guest to attend abc we just saw it again this past week the grief shared persons who received their baptismal certificates in other words attendees of celebrate recovery or griefshare or deaf ministry or the spanish church or our guests that attend all of that that's what a harvest looks like when brother woodson used that phrase look out your window to your field as i said i pictured standing at the windows and the doors of this building and looking out at those neighborhoods especially and closely adjacent to us that's when a simple little plan began to form and it was simply this cover these neighborhoods first of all with prayer and so here's the plan that we're going to attempt in this prayer endeavor that is to drive or walk the neighborhoods of apc praying for each home and person in those and here's how we can do this every time you come to the building whether it's for a church service wednesday or sunday a tuesday prayer meeting or for other meetings some of our departments have meetings any time that you come to take and carve out a few extra minutes either before or after church and just drive down one of these adjacent streets and pray for the people the souls that are there it doesn't matter if 10 apc cars go down one street on the same night who can get enough prayer who's going to turn away say oh too many people praying for me well i feel there's probably not enough i need more and more and more and you can easily google that brother eric put that map up there which i'm doing i'm going out of order a little bit but there's the map of where where we are you could see our apc emblem there where the church sets and so these church i haven't put any boundaries on this but these are the areas that are immediately adjacent to this church and this is what god laid in my heart this first step or phase is for those of us who are holy ghost filled and empowered to be witnesses to just take a few extra moments either before as you come or after now we have to adjust this if if everybody starts coming in late pastor i was out there praying okay here's a little caveat we got to carve out a little extra time we got to leave a little extra early okay or or after service um on the way to culver's or wherever it is just just drive down that street and you've probably done this before and had the experience and of course it's not only church service time or meeting time you can do this anytime if you want to make a special trip down or if you you're just in the area and want to just drive by there's a soul there are many souls on that street that are worth it i'm gonna tell you there's a power in prayer now we're gonna put some legs on these prayers i'll talk about that in a few minutes but there is a power in prayer and you should have received tonight as you come in there's some prayer points that you can pray and if you didn't receive one would you just lift your hand or ushers are ready and some of the other men are ready to give you these are some prayer point of course you can use your own that this is just something as a little guide or some benchmarks pray that the holy ghost will work in homes and lives pray for open doors to those souls to minister the word of god and you you know what we're not saying we got to be the ones that that minister that we may pray for somebody and they may work with somebody from another church we had a meeting with a lady yesterday my wife and i on some financial business and we got to talking and when she asked about um what we did for a living and when we mentioned pentecost she said oh yeah she said do you know linda roy and so she knew another apostolic minister's wife had worked with her for years and linda had made a great impact upon her life when we pray for these open doors we may be the ones walk through them but we may not be the one that's all right just so god opens the door and the word of the lord and jesus christ comes in there's a power in prayer pray for those open doors pray that god would send angels to people to reveal his message bless the businesses and the government and the leaders and the churches who i had when we do those prayer drives i really had a good time praying for the homes and the people but then praying for an apostolic revelation in those churches and i'm going to tell you it is happening and sometimes they have to do it incognito they can't be real open about what god's opening up to them but god any any hungry heart that wants to know god's going to reveal it to them they may be a sunday school teacher in xyz church but god is dealing with them through his word pray to drive back every spirit that destroys families and individuals the second ask i'm gonna do about this is for you to do this same thing in your own neighborhood and some brother mother michael told me that just recently he and sister kelly had just taken up a prayer drive of their own and had been doing that and you if you want to google your location and and draw out some uh maps and color some streets of that you have covered but covering that community that is a harvest that's that's that area around where becky and i live that's that's my field that's my field this is my field your family is your field your family brother michael you got a microphone there tell me i will tell you god is going to open up avenues and opportunities tell tell that about that gentleman about six months ago i went to an archery range up here off of telegraph road and was shooting my bow with another friend of mine and this guy came over and we talked for a few minutes and then as i drive by that every day that archery range off a telegraph to take the kids to school and to go to work and as i drove by that i don't know maybe a month or two months ago that gentleman's there all the time and as i was driving by one morning i saw him there something got a hold of me and i said these words out lie loud i'm gonna win him to the lord and so this that that got a hold of me and then uh i told brad i don't know maybe a month a month ago or so i was telling him about that situation i said next time i see him i'm gonna pull in there and i'm gonna win him to the lord well i don't know if it was the weather or what it was i've been looking for that guy every day and he hasn't been there and he was there every day so i didn't tell pastor this but i i take the kids to school usually every morning and this morning i had a meeting and so kelly was going to take the kids and that meeting ended up being canceled and so i was going to work on my own and as i was driving by that man was out there by himself at that archery range and i looked i thought about my schedule i thought man i've got so much stuff going on and no i gotta get in there so i pulled in there and when i got it i thought i got a little nervous for a second i thought what am i gonna what am i gonna say to this guy and then something popped in my brain you do this every day you you sell every day and talk to people you don't know you can do this i got out of my car i walked straight over to him and i began to talk to him and of course church came up a little bit i wasn't going there to drag him to church tonight i was going there to make friends with him and develop a relationship with him i ended up spending one hour with that man this morning talking about all kinds of sorts of things and he was asking me questions of course church got in there he was asking me questions about church and about pentecost and about all these different things and god opened that door as i forgot to say this as i drive by that for the last month and a half as i drive by that archer range i would pray god open this door and prepare his heart for the word of god as i drive by it every morning and today that happened as michael said he wasn't going to drag him to church he didn't jump out with the bible what'd you start talking about michael first of all what'd you start talking about when you first we were just talking about hunting and archery he's their shooting thing of hunting it's in the bible i don't miss a lot of weekends that go hunting now that pastor just gave me permission but he was building a bridge that's discipleship but he had prayed that prayer god open a door open a door when we go by it may be us and god may they direct us to those people and by the way when you're on these walks or drives you you may meet some people and there's some information we've got it out in the lobby some some cards or invite cards or or even some tracks about what we believe that kind of thing if you want some of those those are available tonight they are out there but god wants to use us as his apostolic witnesses and church and we can harvest and here's some of the ways we're going to harvest this field those people we meet as we drive and walk be sensitive to the holy ghost be sensitive and as michael said you're gonna there'll be some fear to pop up don't let that keep you in the car don't let that keep your mouth closed you know all of us knew how to talk yeah just listen to the lobby before service came in the side door with that little pastoring very subtle we know how to talk michael nervous about talking about hunting give me a break we can create a conversation build a bridge build a bridge love people you know what they said about jesus he he's hanging out and he's eating and he's fellowshipping with publicans and sinners but he was creating a bond and building a bridge and it didn't impact jesus it didn't influence his holiness but he influenced them here's another thing we're going to do pentecost sunday is coming up may 23rd and we're going to mail out to these areas and we're going to have handout cards that we can hand out and so it's not just going to be prayer that we're going to be doing and then there's going to be other efforts that the lord will direct us in and direct us to and just today uh where the brad took a he he's had a tremendous burden and god has talked to various people here about those terror view apartments and he preached about it a few weeks ago there's a reason for that i don't know all of the reason for it but there just that there are souls there and so he some uh one of our ladies fixed up a very nice basket a lot of little uh snacks and that kind of thing in there it looked very nice that thing was huge he took it over there to the office over there and the lady said what is this who's this far and brad said it's for you and the staff and anybody else that you want to give it to and the lady was just taken aback and brad told her where he was from and the church is nearby and if there's any way that we can serve you or help you um we want to do that and they have a policy which i understand they don't want peddlers of any kind selling goods or selling religion in there we went in there one time and got our hands slapped we didn't know we didn't know but it don't do any good to trample on that policy but say bless god we're carrying the gospel it don't matter what no no we just carry the light of the gospel god's going to open up great doors and so that's that's one of those close areas and just drive through that lot and pray and that lady as brad said i heard her as i was going out she a fellow worker came in she said can you believe this this is so wonderful it made an impression it made a love impression it made a concern and a care impression upon them now did they speak in tongues and get the holy ghost no not yet not yet but i'm going to tell you what god can open a door through that into somebody's soul and it may even give us an open door to be able to have something there who knows that's why prayer is going to be important for open doors would you stand together i want us to i want to ask you if you would those prayer points that we mentioned a while ago the evangelism prayer points god make me a soul winner i'm going to ask us to do do these prayers tonight maybe you can alternate those brother eric back and forth there's about four i think there's about four different prayer points that are there but i want us to join together i'm going to ask every believer every believer and those of you online join with us and pray these prayer points because god's going to hear these prayers and we're going to pray them sincerely and the work is going to be done let's pray together lord now first of all i thank you i thank you for the holy ghost i thank you for the great gift of empowerment oh lord and now i pray i pray i offer myself make me a soul winner god oh make me a soul winner hallelujah for your glory make me a soul winner hallelujah that means i get an eternal win because souls are eternal and they have eternal value god i pray that you would fill our church fill our altars and our pews with lost men and women and boys and girls that are repenting of their sins and here's what i know god when they repent you're going to forgive you're going to wash away fill our church with people repenting of their sins that our baptisteries be worn out by the trafficker of people having their sins remitted their sins washed away oh god i pray that you would help us lord i pray that people would open their life to water baptism the covering of the blood in jesus name and lord i agree with your promise that you're going to pour out your spirit that you're going to pour out your spirit let hungry souls reach up to you those that really don't understand at all i pray that you would give them whatever degree of understanding that it would take for them to receive your spirit even those of us that have received it don't fully understand all about it god so i pray that you would help them to open their life to the outpouring of your spirit and i want to agree with that promise i don't want there to be one doubt in my mind about that promise that you said you would pour your spirit out on all flesh that means everybody where an individual works that means everybody in the classroom that means everybody in the neighborhood every neighbor that means everybody in these surrounding neighborhood homes that are around apc i thank you lord for your great promise i thank you for your purpose and i thank you lord that you've chosen to use us to fulfill your purpose hallelujah it's a privilege and a great responsibility think about this folks god could have used other agencies to do this work it's so important eternity souls he could have sent angels but he didn't he said i trust humans i trust the people that i fill with my spirit to be the witnesses wherever they are wherever they work wherever they live wherever they go it's a great responsibility but then it's also a great privilege to think that heaven would put it in our hands to be an influence for something that will change somebody's life forever meaning forever in this life and forever in the life to come praise god some of us were brought up in the church and others of you somebody witness to you those of us who have brought been brought up in the church we can thank god that somebody either witnessed to our parents or our grandparents or whoever it was down the line in our heritage then if you are a first generation you can be thankful that somebody gave a witness to you let's thank him for his great salvation tonight lord we honor you wig song you and we thank you for your salvation we thank you o lord we thank you we thank you jesus for your great salvation and for your purpose and we know you are coming soon we know you are coming soon we thank you o lord for this privilege bless and anoint your church in jesus name and we know that you will amen amen