Accelerating Discipleship

Thank you, Brother Fuller. Praise the Lord, everyone. Good morning, Oklahoma. If we don't have a visitation of the Holy Ghost in this place today, we're passing up a good chance. So get ready — get ready, get ready, get ready. The Lord is here.

Last night was so powerful. Brother Carson preached "The Fourth Nail," and I'm going to tell you right now: he nailed it. But there were several that came forward last night for a miracle — specifically for a miracle. And sometimes the miracle happens, but we don't know it for a day or two or three or four. But then there's other times when the miracle is instantaneous and spontaneous — there's a change, there's something dramatic that happens, usually physically, sometimes spiritually. So if you came forward last night, we're going to just have testimony right now. If you came forward for a miracle, and before you left this house last night something changed in your body — the pain left, whatever — something changed, I want you to just lift your hand right now as a testimony. Look at this — I see three. Let's celebrate. Let's thank God. And the rest of us, let's praise God, because the miracle is on the way. Praise Him, 'cause it's on the way.

Praise God. Amen. I believe in praying and then asking: was there any change? Did anything happen? I don't believe in praying and walking away. I want to know. I can't heal anybody. I can't do any miracles. I'm not embarrassed if nothing happens. Come on, praise God — only Jesus is the Healer. Only He can do it.

So this place was packed last night, but I can see right now who the real spiritual and the godly people are. I don't know where all those backsliders are that were here last night. And I'm so happy to see all of you in your assigned seats today. It makes it easy to take attendance. You want to mess up your pastor Sunday morning? Just sit in another seat — it'll just discombobulate everything.

So honored — you may be seated — I'm so honored to be a part of this team for the Killmon [unclear] Carson. Our Bishop launched Accelerate on Wednesday night, and I, for the life of me, could not figure out what the gas station was doing up here. I just couldn't put that together. I'm like — somebody said, "Well, Accelerate" — I'm like, duh, it's ten cents a gallon. Anybody old enough to remember that? I'm not even that old. We got one, two cents, three — ten cents? I go back to 25 cents, that's it.

So this is very, very exciting. So for the pastors and ministers, there are two resources I just wanted to make you aware of. So the first one is a book that I wrote for Publishing — well, okay, we'll do this one. "The Unflawed Leader" is an examination of the only perfect Leader the world has ever seen. When I was writing the book, my wife said, "What's the name of it?" I said, "The Unflawed Leader." She said, "Oh — it's an autobiography?" No, she didn't. I'm just kidding. She would never say that. She knows way better than that. So there's 14 chapters and 14 glimpses of Jesus in real time, as the only perfect Leader the world has ever seen. He should be studied. He should be emulated. He should be imitated. If Jesus did it, you can do it. If He didn't do it, don't you do it. So have a nice day.

So this is creating a culture of Christ-like wellness in the local church. And then the other book — I sort of went inside myself and I said, "What would I want to know, as a young pastor, about money in the church?" This is not about bookkeeping, and it's not about budgets. It's about how to biblically talk about finances in the church. And there's three sections. And I would have given five hundred dollars — it's only, I think, $16.99 at Publishing House. You can get it at Publishing House or at Amazon — either one of these. I want a young pastor to read it like I'm sitting across the table and we're just having a conversation about how to overcome things, how to situate things, how to talk biblically about money. The second section is worth way more than the price of the book. There's a hundred and four two-minute offering sermons. Too many times, Sunday morning, the offering segment is thrown away. And don't forget that everything you do creates culture in your church, and everything you don't do creates culture in your church. And so, you know, vision is one thing, but if your culture doesn't support your vision, culture eats vision for lunch. So this creates culture. There's enough for two years' worth of Sunday short offering glimpses from the Scripture and other various sources. And then the last section — I have included ten sermons. They're scripted, on stewardship and giving. So I hope that will be a blessing, if you want to access that.

So this morning I'm continuing our study in accelerating discipleship. And sometimes when we think of discipleship, we think of a class on Sunday morning — discipleship class. And we have discipleship classes on Sunday morning at The Life Church in Kansas City. But I'm going to tell you that if that's all you're offering to make disciples, then you will not be successful. Discipleship is rolling up your shirt sleeves, coming alongside unchurched, unsaved people that are hungry. Jesus said in Luke 10, when you go out by two — He sent out the seventy by two — He said, if the son of peace receive you, that's a potential disciple. Jesus said, stay there. The son of peace is someone who's not fighting against God, and they're ready to hear your story and your revelation. And the Lord said, if the son of peace is there, receives you, then stay there. And the son of peace is the influencer of the family, the leader of the household. You want to accelerate disciples? Then connect with sons of peace, leaders of households. It's all through the book of Acts. We don't have to work harder; we can just work smarter. Amen. It's Cornelius and his — it's the Philippian jailer and his — it's, I think his name is Justus, later on in the book of Acts, and his household. It's Lydia down by the river, and her household. Praise God. It's time that we reach out to the sons and daughters of peace and see entire families — large families, big families — come. It's Apostolic. It's book of Acts. Pray that God will lead you to the sons of peace.

And so, disciples and discipleship is more than a class on Sunday morning. "Well, we're making disciples because we have a discipleship class on Sunday morning." No, no, no. The real work of disciple-making is — you remember the diagram yesterday? That's not the arrows coming in; it's the arrows going out. That's where the real disciple-making happens.

And so today I would like to use as a launching point for this talk Acts chapter 6. And I'm going to read 6:1–8 and 6:7. Notice this: "Now in those days" — everybody say, "those days." So these are specific days. This is a specific sort of window of time. "In those days, when the number of disciples was" — what? It was accelerating. The disciples were not just being added. Bishop preached about the apostolic arithmetic — maybe Bishop preached from this; I'm not sure, I haven't compared notes, and I did get to hear his great message. But in those days, the disciples were multiplying.

Now, the next few verses unpack a disturbing event, and I will address this in a moment. But there was a problem — everybody say, "there was a problem." See, the challenge is not to love the perfect church. Anybody can love the perfect church — even you can love the perfect church. But the challenge is to love the real church. You know, when Paul said that He will present it to Himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, neither shall there be any blemish — I'm like, what? What — is He ever at The Life Church of Kansas City, Missouri? I don't know anything about a glorious church. I see all the flops, fumbles, failures, warts, wrinkles. Makes me want to bring an iron to church sometimes.

Perfect church, glorious — sort of like the guy that crash-landed his airplane within swimming distance of a one-acre deserted island in the South Pacific, and he swam to shore. He couldn't find anybody — just one acre. And so he started writing messages, you know, in the sand: SOS, and help, and hopefully an airplane would fly over, a ship would come by. Nothing, for ten years. He is alone on this one-acre island, subsisting on coconut milk and bugs and whatever he can eat. So he survives ten years. One day a ship is off course. He screams, hollers, yells. The captain notices him. He pulls over, and he jumps in the water and swims out to the boat, and they haul him over the edge. He goes, "I'm saved! I'm saved!" He hadn't seen a human in ten years. He's hugging everybody — and whoa — and they're pulling back. And get ready to take off, and the captain notices three huts right there, just at the tree line. He said, "Sir, did you live on this island by yourself?" He said, "I sure did." "How long were you here?" He said, "Ten years." He said, "Did you build those three huts?" He said, "I sure did, with my own hands." He said, "What did you use them for?" He said, "Well, you see the one in the middle?" He said, "That's where I lived." "Oh. You see the one on the left?" He said, "Yeah." He said, "That's where I went to church." "You see the one on the right?" He said, "Yeah." He said, "That's where I used to go to church." That was way too long of a story. It wasn't worth that. But it sort of illustrates the point, right? So the challenge is not to love the perfect church. Anybody can do that. Love the real church. The church has challenges and battles and struggles and difficulties, but just like the first church, God helps us to negotiate, to manage, to overcome, to be victorious. And we're so thankful for that.

Now verse 7: "Then the word of God spread." Would you just read this entire verse with me? This is amazing. And as we're reading this, I want you to ask yourself the question: have I ever in my life seen this? Ready? Here we go — out loud together, verse 7: "Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith." Brothers and sisters, that verse alone challenges me.

Luke is the inspired writer. God is the author, and Luke is the inspired writer of the book of Acts. And as he's putting pen to paper, he knows that his readers are going to recall an epic epoch — that sounds smart, doesn't it? An epoch is just a season that's marked by certain features. And Luke knows that his readers will say, "Oh yeah, I remember that." See, Acts is written, you know, years after some of these events, but through divine recall and Luke gathering carefully — said, "I carefully gathered information to give a historic record of these events, so that you can celebrate them and be edified." And as the readers are reading the book of Acts, they're saying to themselves, "I remember. I was a part of that Jerusalem church. It was the most exciting time in the history of our church. We started out adding — Bishop, the Lord started adding to the church — but then we went from addition to multiplication. Something unusual happened. Something extraordinary happened. I mean, just, people were busy. People were engaged. People were involved. People that I never thought would lead somebody to Christ were leading them to Christ. People that were sitting there twice dead, plucked up by the roots — they got up, they got out, they started teaching Bible studies, and God was adding to the church."

And I'm telling you: if disciples are ever going to multiply again, it's going to take every single one of us to get on the mission. I know you've got a ministry — but are you on the mission? Get on the mission. What are you waiting for? What are you afraid of? The Lord is going to back you up, because it's His mission.

Now, in our ranks there is this misnomer, this unfortunate misperception, that if you are a part of a growing church, that you are a compromiser. It's out there. If you're really having revival — I guarantee, if your church doubled in the next twelve months, somebody's out there saying it: "Well, that preacher don't even believe fat meat's greasy. They don't believe nothing." I mean, just sort of — if you don't say "Amen," at least look "Amen." You know what I'm talking — it's out there now. You know, we haven't broken any records in Kansas City. I mean, we've doubled, I think, three times since we came to Kansas City, and we're celebrating that. We're still on the move, and we thank God. And there's been people — I just had, not a minister of our fellowship, but another — I think he's independent — but he told somebody who told me, said, "Well, Gleason's not making any disciples, because nobody's getting saved in that church." That's the fewer-and-the-purer crowd. Heaven's going to be a real small place. It's going to be them four and no more. Can I tell you, Heaven's going to surprise a lot of people? It's going to surprise a lot of people. Hallelujah. Praise God.

Now, I don't need to go on the record — I believe everything Brother Carson preached last night. Everything. So that's all I'm going to say about that. I mean, I am a poster boy in the UPCI, right — the Articles of Faith. So I'm not going to qualify or defend anything that I'm saying. But there's this idea — and I wish we could kill it today, once and for all, in the entire fellowship — that if you're really having robust growth, that you must be compromising something. You must be — you're probably not preaching the whole truth. Your people probably aren't really getting saved. There's probably no repentance going on there. They're just signing cards and shaking the preacher's hand and praying the sinner's prayer. Listen: there's not one church in this district that does that, that believes in that. We believe in honest, Apostolic, book-of-Acts, biblical growth. And the good news is, you don't have to compromise anything to begin a season of multiplication. And I say that season is now. I say that time is now. God is up to something big — big. Somebody turn to somebody else and shout, "Big!"

Oh yeah. D. L. Moody said, "If God's your partner, make big plans." Make big plans. And so I'm talking about when the disciples multiplied — everybody say, "disciples." So we're getting better. We still have a ways to go, but we're getting better at using biblical language. And the church will be better served if we go back to the language of the text. Because today we call ourselves — we don't call ourselves disciples; we call ourselves Christians, right? But we make sure we distinguish ourselves: that we are Oneness, Apostolic, Pentecostal. We are, you know, Oneness in theology, Apostolic in doctrine, and Pentecostal in experience. And we're quick to add those nomenclatures when we're having conversations. Why? Because we do not want to be identified with lazy Christianity. There's 260 million Christians in America, and we can't even get 50 million of them to show up at church on Sunday. Twenty — that's lousy. That's lazy.

Why do you think COVID has shut down mainline denominational churches? Why do you think we're buying buildings for pennies on the dollar? Why do you think that they cannot even supply pastors in their congregations, in their churches? Because — and why did we survive, and why did even some of us thrive and advance during such a difficult time? I'll tell you why: it's because of the level of commitment that pastors preach and teach in their congregations. And we expect a lot more, because we believe what the Word of God really does say. And we're not interested in attracting a Sunday-morning crowd of consumers, right? The Apostolic church is not full of consumers. Consumers think they have options. They go to Walmart, or Target, or Sam's Club, or DG — Dollar General. We have lots of options.

It's like Jesus in John 6, on Fish and Chips Sunday. You've had 20,000 with five loaves and two fish. I can't believe it — that lady, she just smiled. Worked on her all day yesterday. I got her — "Fish and Chips Sunday" did it. Better make a note of that. I'm just teasing. There's nobody over there not smiling. I'm just having fun. Fish and Chips Sunday, yeah — 20,000: five thousand men, plus women and children, maybe 20,000. I've been to the spot where it happened. There's a natural amphitheater there, the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee, and it could have happened — they could see them there. And it's free food, dinner on the grounds, giveaway, cool stuff. And Peter, James, and John, the executive committee, are conferring just before the service, and one of them said, "Did you look at Jesus' sermon notes? I just sent them to Media. I don't think this is going to go over too good. He really should have, you know, preached a little easier sermon with this big crowd." And so sure enough, Jesus gets up and He blows it. He just — it was awful. He should have made everybody feel good: "You can climb that mountain, just one step after the other. You can climb it. You can climb that mountain." No. He gets up there, He says, "Except you eat of My flesh and drink of My blood, you have no life in you, and no part of Me." And the consumers that are sitting out there — they're there for the loaves, the fishes, the show, the dinner. They're there for the fun. And Jacob looks at his wife Sarah and says, "Honey, get the kids. Where do you want to go to church next Sunday? It costs too much to go to this church. What's He talking about — flesh and blood, and sacrifice, and commitment?"

And I'm going to tell you: Jesus had to find out if He had a crowd full of consumers, or if He had a congregation full of disciples. And there's a big difference in 21st-century Christianity and first-century disciples. And the church would be better served to get back to the language of disciples — which, if you haven't figured out, is the root word for discipline, and commitment, and structure, and passion, and sold out. Oh yeah, yeah. Consumers walked away. And pastor, evangelist, teacher, apostle, prophet: don't ever shrink back from preaching commitment. We heard a commitment message Wednesday night and Thursday night. Because you'll never know who's in the congregation until you preach commitment. And for sure, you are going to lose people if you preach commitment. And I'm not talking about preaching it mean and angry and nasty. I'm talking about preaching it like Jesus said it. His voice never even got as loud as my voice is right now, but He was a Teacher, and He reached for commitment, and He lost people. And you will lose people when you preach commitment. But you'll choose who you lose. You will never lose committed people when you preach commitment. I've never had a tither come up to me after I preached about tithing and said, "You know, that sermon ticked me off today." No. I actually had one guy come to me after I preached about giving. He said, "Man, Pastor, it's about time. I'm tired of carrying this whole church on my back." I looked at the giving record. He wasn't carrying the church on his back — maybe on his little finger.

Oh, everybody say, "Commitment." So we'd be better served to talk about disciples — everybody say, "disciples." Boy, that's not in our vocabulary, but it needs to be. It needs to be. We need to talk more about disciples, and less about compromised 21st-century Christianity, because we can't even get 20 percent of them to come to church. The average Christian gives less than two percent of their increase to the church. That's not us, huh? That better not be you. You're in disobedience. Jesus said, "If you love Me, obey Me."

You know, the motif in 21st-century Christianity is "come, sit, sing, and soak." That's not the motif in the first century. The first century was "take up your cross and follow Me." First century is subordinate everything else to how much you love Me. You can't love your dad more than Me — your mom, your brother, your sister, your wife, your husband, your kids, your dog. You've got to put everything behind Me. Everything's got to get in line. I've got to be number one. Amen.

So when we think of disciples — now, when I was a kid growing up, we used to sing a song about the disciple: "There was 12 disciples..." Jesus — and again: "...and Philip, Peter, James, and Andrew's brother, John." I don't even know — I probably messed all that up. How many ever heard that song? Oh, well, good. I was way off. But it's been too long. It's something like that. So I don't know if you know it, but Jesus had a Twitter account. Yeah. If Sister [Jokey] will help me — Jesus had — yeah, He had 12 followers. And look at those guys. That is my imagery of disciples when I was a kid growing up, because the only thing I ever associated with disciples was in our Easter dramas that we did in my home church. And disciples, to me, were 12 middle-aged, overweight men in the church with fake beards, bathrobes, and nasty house shoes. That's — can I tell you something? I shouldn't even put that up there.

Disciples are followers. Jesus said, "Follow Me" — Matthew 9:9, "Follow Me." He was a rabbi. We don't understand disciples, but it was the culture in the first century. We don't get it. That's why we haven't reached the world yet: because we're not living as disciples. We're living as 21st-century Christians that are just coming to church, paying our tithes, singing in the choir, happy-clapping. Thank God for miracles, wonders, signs, for all of that. But we haven't yet reached that epoch where disciples are being multiplied, because we're not living like disciples. But we're going to be. We're on our way. We just need to take enough at the text — take another look at the commands of Jesus.

When Jesus said, "Follow Me," was He saying, "Come and be in My entourage. Hang out with Me. Have free food. See cool stuff. Sit on the front row. It'll be amazing"? Oh — when those 20,000 walked away on Fish and Chips Sunday, who was left? Disciples. He let 20,000 walk away, and He didn't chase them down, because He will never reach the world with people who are living lazy lives, and they're not giving up anything for the mission. He let them walk away. But there were still 12 left at the end of the day. "Andrew, make a fire. Get some of those fragments. We'll have a snack." Guys, gentlemen: we did not fail today. We had a colossal exodus, but we didn't lose one disciple today, because you're still here. So what have we lost? He knew He could not reach the world with 20,000 consumers, but He could reach the world with 12 disciples. Hallelujah.

And I'm telling you, consumers will never reach the world. If the Apostolic church is full of consumers — people that are just coming and going — will never reach the world. But I've come to ask you today: who's ready to get on the mission? Who is ready to go all in, and get back to the Bible language, and start acting like first-century disciples?

Can I — I didn't just joking — I didn't give you Matthew 10:39, but can you find it and toss it up there? Matthew 10:39. Jesus said, "If you find your life, you will lose it" — Matthew 10:39 — "but if you lose your life, for what? For My sake, you will find it." I'm saying — and I think, I believe I'm right; Brother Killmon, you can straighten me out later — but I believe I'm right. I don't believe I'm injuring the context. I don't think Jesus is talking to sinners here. I don't think He's talking to lost people. I don't think He's saying, "Give Me your rags and your riches — give Me your rags and your brokenness, and I'll give you riches and blessings." I don't think it's — I think He's talking to disciples here, talking to people that are on the journey. And He's saying, you've got to give up your life. I know a lot of 21st-century saved, sanctified, justified, petrified Apostolics in the 21st century that loved their life. They loved their life.

He's not talking about getting saved. What did you give up to get saved? You gave up madness. You gave up chaos. You gave up pain. You gave up misery. You gave up brokenness. Don't give me some testimony how you gave up fame and fortune to be a beggar and follow Jesus. That's not what we're talking about here today. We're talking about after you get saved, after you get born again, after you get in the church: have you given up your life for His sake? What is His sake? To seek and to save that which was lost.

Praise God. Everybody smile. I'm not angry — I'm passionate. I don't just talk about making disciples. I do it. I fly all over the country. I fly all over the world. I'm having to make appointments so I can hang out with coffee and Bible studies with my disciples right now — Thomas and Chris, and another one I'm just starting with. I'm sharing my life with them. They don't even know how awesome I am. They have no clue. I get to preach at camp meetings, and I get to go to Europe and preach conferences and things. And I'm — I'm not — I'm just having fun. God knows I'm not bragging. That is not me. They have no idea. And I'm going to tell you: tell your people that have no idea how awesome you are. You're selling yourself way too short, and the devil's got you hoodwinked, because he's got so much shame on you — that because you're not perfect, because you're not qualified, because you don't talk in tongues three hours a day and have ten thousand verses memorized, and "I could never make a disciple." Can I tell you, you need to stop listening to the devil? It's not that hard, people. It's not that difficult. It's really not. You just need to start obeying the Lord.

Let me show you how easy it is. Let me show you — how easy is — raise your hand. It's not a trick question. Wait a minute — you don't know the whole question. Raise your hand if you have a friend. Ninety-three percent have a friend. Well, that's good. That's better than average. But I'm worried about that seven percent. Y'all don't brush your teeth, take showers? Maybe you're just too cheap. What does it take to have a friend? What does the Bible say? Make yourself friendly. That's a good start. Yeah, you've got to remember birthdays, anniversaries. You've got to be there for a 2 a.m. phone call, if you're going to be a real friend. It takes time. It's no different in making disciples.

Where'd I get that? Jesus — Matthew 11:19. Jesus turned sinners into friends. Jesus was the friend of sinners. He's our model. He's our example. Jesus was not corrupted. You know, sometimes our theology works against us. You know, we preach, "Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing." And some of us have preached that so hard, we have created the rapture before it ever happened, because we came out. Listen: your garments will not be stained. Your hands will not become muddy when you get them on sinners. Jesus touched lepers, and He never got leprosy. Come on, huh? Jesus touched blind people, and He never became blind. What are you worried about? Don't be so sanctified and sanctimonious that you think you're going to be corrupted. Don't you believe in the power of the blood? We sang about it last night. Don't you believe in the power of the name? It's not going to corrupt you. You're going to influence.

Jesus said, "Follow Me. Live like Me. Act like Me. Talk like Me. Behave like Me." Jesus was the ultimate lover of people, and disciple-maker. How good of a job did He do? Let me ask you a question: if you were a betting man in the first century, would you put your money on the powerful Roman government and empire, or a nondescript rabbi from Nazareth, to have an enterprise 2,000 years later? We don't know anything about the Roman government today like it was in those days, but Jesus still has a church. He's a pretty good disciple-maker.

Acts 4:13: "When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, to perceive that they were unlearned, ignorant men" — Jeff Arnold said that means stupid, but powerful. That's really a reference back to that clergy-laity, non-Apostolic concept that we can't buy into today. That's what they were talking about: there's the educated clergy, the stupid laity — because Peter and John weren't raised in their schools. But here's what it says: "They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." That's disciple-making language. When Jesus said, "Follow Me," He says, "Imitate Me." Are you imitating Jesus? We heard last night about the fruit of the Spirit. We need more of that preaching right there. Imitate Jesus. The fruit of the Spirit is the personality and the spirit and attitude of Jesus. Paul said in Philippians 2:5, "Let this attitude be in you, that was also in Christ Jesus." We need the fruit of the Spirit. But that's not all about imitating. That's not the only thing that it means to imitate Jesus. It means to go make disciples, like He did. It's this pattern. Paul picked it up in First Corinthians 11:1, when he said, "Imitate me, as I imitate Christ."

Huh. I just told you a minute ago, you're more awesome than what you realize. And you are so awesome that somebody you know wants to be more like you, than you're willing to give yourself credit for. That's what disciple-making is. It's, let me just take a journey with you. Can we just hang out until — you don't say this — till you start talking like me, and doing what I do. That's all it is: taking a journey, having a friend.

So, I was preaching at the Illinois camp a few years ago, and a stranger walks up to me after about three nights, and he says, "Do you know a missionary named Ken Cantrell?" And let me show you the picture of what Cantrell looked like when I first met him. This is about 1991. Comes into church — wife and three little kids, all preschool age. And I was so intrigued by this question: do I know a missionary named Ken Cantrell? So I thought I'd play dumb — sort of came natural. "Cantrell? Yeah, I think I heard of them. Africa? Yeah, I think so." I said, "Well, why do you ask?" He said, "Well, I listened to you preach for three nights, and you preach a whole lot like he does." I said, "Dude, he didn't get awesome all by himself."

So Cantrell comes to church — Jenny, Justin, Jennifer, Jonathan — and he tells me that he's a manager of Champs Sporting Goods. Let me tell you something: your hottest disciple leads will be in your church this Sunday morning. Five percent of the people that will be in your church — for you to come alongside and disciple them. I didn't have to go knock doors. I hate knocking doors. Did I just help somebody right there? Am I operating in the gifts right now? I don't do it. But I can — I can meet strangers really well. Yeah, especially when they're in church. There's a thought.

So he says, "You manage Champs Sporting Goods?" So guess where I am the next day. You know, nobody else in our church was thinking about it, but I was. So I go to Champs. Why? Because I need golf balls. Now, I've got twelve dozen golf balls stacked in my garage. But when you play as bad as I do, another dozen is always handy. And I'm walking around in that store — it's about half as big as this platform — for 30 minutes. I cannot find them golf balls. But I'm looking at every security camera, and smiling when I walk by. Pretty soon he comes bouncing out of his office: "Pastor, what are you doing here?" I said, "Oh, well, I heard you worked at Champs. I thought, give me a deal on some golf balls." "Well, sure." He takes me over to them. I pick out a dozen. I said, "Do you have any plans for lunch?" You know, it's about 11:30. "No." I said, "Can I buy your lunch?" He said, "Sure" — because I buy, because I can't stand cheap preachers.

And so we go to lunch. I said, "Tell me something about yourself." He said, "I grew up in an Apostolic church, and I never got saved." That's because nobody ever discipled him. I said, "Tell me about that." He said, "We had a church of about 40 people." And he said, "The pastor, one Sunday night, not too long ago, just before we moved here, he came screaming off the platform — with 40 people, shouting like he was at a NASCAR — and he looks at my son, my three-year-old son. He says, 'Justin, you don't want your dad to go to hell, do you?'" He said, "This hamburger you bought me — he said, I like it. But I don't want you shoving it down my throat." I said, "Oh, you're going to love me."

Before we left, he agreed to have a Bible study. After the fifth lesson, he asked me if he could be baptized the next Sunday night. Jamie and Devonna were there the next Sunday night. He was sitting over here. And I'm preaching, and I'm preaching the house down, and I've got a message, and I've got three more powerful, awesome points. And he interrupts my sermon — and he's the only man in 44 years of preaching I've ever seen, when I've been preaching, runs to the altar and lifts his hand right in front of the pulpit. And you could visibly see, like the Bible says, and the Holy Ghost fell on him. There was a before-and-an-after moment. And you can see it happen. And he began speaking in tongues. He grew up in an Apostolic church, but he never got saved, because nobody came alongside and believed in him, and built a relationship with him, and showed him the love of Jesus Christ.

I'm thinking: manager at Champs — maybe he's a leader. See, this is an IQ test. You just need a two-digit IQ to figure this out. And so he comes in my leadership training, comes on our staff, becomes one of our staff speakers. And then I made the fatal mistake of taking him on a mission to Africa. I should have never done that. So can you show the next — come on. "I can't go to Africa. I've actually been there, but I can't live in Africa. But I can make a disciple that God can send."

Is there any man here that works in a factory? You do factory work? Let's — construction, construction workers. I want all the construction workers to stand. Please stand if you're in construction. Let's thank God for these good men. Just remain standing, remain standing.

There was a guy named Ernie Cox who lived in Cincinnati. He worked in a factory. He went to a UPCI church. He was not flamboyant. He was not extroverted. He was not charismatic in any way, in his personality. But he just loved lost people. He started building a relationship — thank you, gentlemen, you can be seated — with a man named Denzel. And he starts writing scriptures and handing them to Denzel, and they're hanging out, having lunch when the whistle blew. And they're just building a relationship. And Denzel went home, and he told his wife. He said, "You know, I can't stand most Christians. But there's something about Ernie Cox, the way he lives. If I ever decide I'm going to be a Christian, I'm going to be that kind of a Christian."

And so, a few — some time goes by, and Denzel comes to work on a Monday morning. He's smiling. He's excited. And Ernie says, "Denzel, what happened to you?" He said, "Oh, yesterday I went to church with a friend, and I got saved." He said, "You got saved? Tell me about it." He said, "Well, the preacher preached. I came forward. He told me to repeat after him, and I repeated a prayer. And he said, sign this card. And he shook my hand, told me I was saved." So Ernie said — "You didn't get nothing. That's not how you make disciples." Ernie's like — oh, so — whoa. "Thank God you're starting your journey." He said, "If you went to your friend's church — am I your friend?" He said, "Yeah, you're my friend." "Would you come to my church?" He said, "I would love to come to your church."

And so he came to church the next Sunday. The preacher preached on baptism. Denzel gets baptized in the name of the Lord. The next Sunday, come back, and God fills him with the Holy Ghost. And then Denzel — Denzel is faithful, and he gets a prayer life, and God calls him to preach. And he gets his license. And then a few years go by, and his pastor sends him 30 miles down the road to plant a church. And he starts a church. And while he's there, God calls him to the mission field. And so he goes to the Philippines, and he's there a few years. And then the Lord calls him to Madagascar. And when he went to Madagascar, there were six churches and 12 licensed ministers. But today, there's over 200,000 constituents in a thousand churches in Madagascar. And I'm talking about Denzel Richardson, the apostle to Madagascar.

And you may never — you may never reach a thousand people. But if you can make a disciple — you construction guys, you guys that are out there in the trenches — I'm telling you, God could use you to reach the next great missionary. This is how we multiply disciples. Oh, somebody clap your hands again like you mean it.

Oh, I pray that revelation breaks in. How many enjoy studying prophecy? I enjoy it. I have no idea what it's talking about, but I enjoy it. Yeah. But you know what? Lately, my most favorite book of prophecy is not Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah — I don't know, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Malachi. It's not Revelation — we'll leave that up to Brother Killmon, what an incredible job he did yesterday. My favorite book of prophecy is the Acts of the Apostles, because it's where the church is going.

Lately I've heard a couple of preachers say, "We're blowing the book of Acts away. We're just blowing the book of Acts away." Oh, really? You reading the same Bible I'm reading? "We're blowing the book of Acts away." Acts 5:28: "You have filled all Jerusalem" — Acts 5:28 — "with your doctrine." Now, I'd like to be able to say we're blowing the book of Acts away. I really would. I shouted when they said it. But I thought, wait a minute. Let's fact-check that, Brother Wisdom. We're going to fact-check that. Have you filled your city with your doctrine? Disciples aren't going to multiply until we fill the city with our doctrine.

And let's look a little further. Acts 8:4: "And they went everywhere preaching the word." Who went everywhere preaching the word? Somebody said, "The apostles." No, not the apostles. The disciples went everywhere. I talked to you yesterday about the pulpit. And if this is the only place where the word is being preached, we will never be going everywhere to preach the word. It's time for you to start preaching. Maybe we need to redefine — Bishop — preaching, now. We want — if God calls you, then we want to license you. But everyone is called on the mission to go teach. And so they went everywhere preaching the word.

You know, the text that we read, Acts 6:7, says, "The word of God increased." Say that with me: "The word of God increased." Now I'm teaching right now. I'm not a teacher, but I'm teaching. Eight times in the book of Acts it uses that, or a similar phrase: "The word of God increased." What does that mean? They went out and bought big family Bibles? "Well, the word's increasing. We went and got family Bibles. We're bringing them to church now." Huh? How did the word increase? They didn't even have Bibles. They didn't carry Bibles to church. There was one Bible — it was just the Old Testament — and it was sitting in a cabinet in the synagogue. That was the Bible in the community, the only Bible in the whole community. So how did the word increase? You went out and were sharing your story, and using the word. Because they knew the word. Those children that grew up in rabbinical schools, they knew the word. And so the word of God increased. And every time the word of God increases, there will be a growth in the church. Because you can't bring a sinner to Christ with your testimony alone. You've got to bring the word. Because the word brings movement. The word brings conviction. The word brings forward movement. The word brings a decision. The word brings that conviction to that person. You've got to have the word. Hanging out is fine. Coffee's fine. Lunch is fine. But at some point you've got to bring the word of God. Amen. Just a few scriptures: John 3:16, Acts 2:38, Acts 2:1–4, Acts 10 — Acts chapter 10 — Acts 19. Bring the word of God. You've got to bring it. Turn to somebody, say, "Bring it."

"The word of God increased." Look at verse 8 — chapter 8, verse 8: "There was great joy in that city." Everybody smile. Oh, that got her right there. I guarantee you, if your pastor would get up Sunday and say, "Today we are going to have a smile revival," and you promised the pastor you would smile the instant you got on the church campus, and the instant you walked into Walmart — we've got some of the grumpiest people I've ever seen in my life. Look like they woke up drinking lemon juice and went to bed and took a bath in it. Huh? What's wrong with us? Why can't we be happy? There was great joy in that city, and they didn't even have the Holy Ghost yet. The whole city was filled with joy. Your church would grow ten — if you'd just have a smile revival. Ha. Come on, start there. If you can't smile, you sure won't make disciples. Oh, I can't even go there.

Look at this. Acts 9:31: "The churches throughout all Judea" — everybody say, "the churches" — "had peace, were edified, walking in the fear of the Lord, comfort of the Holy Spirit — the churches multiplied." Did you catch that? Not just the disciples now — the church. We're walking into that right now. Is that brother here — Brother Shotwell? I'm not sure if he's here or not. It was a pastor here last night, and I think it's Brother Williams that's made friends with him. Is that right? Yes — Brother Pitts, I'm sorry — and has been building a relationship. And he got a revelation of water baptism in the name of Jesus. And he's been filled with the Holy Ghost. And he's turning around — he's baptized about 40 of his people in the name of Jesus. He was here last night with us. He's our brother. He's our brother. This is how we're going to multiply churches. We don't have room in the UPCI for the revival that God has for us. But why can't we start being Aquila and Priscilla, and coming alongside Apollos? Why can't we? Amen.

The Bible said that a great company of priests were obedient to the faith. Praise — put that up there, Sister [Jokey]. Acts 6:7: "And a great company of priests — " I said my favorite book of prophecy is the book of Acts, because we're walking in it right now. And every miracle they had, we're going to have it. And we're going to fill the city with our doctrine. And we're going to go everywhere preaching the word. And a great company of priests — that means denominational pastors are going to get a revelation. On Oklahoma — is this mic on? Denominational pastors are going to get a revelation of the mighty God. That's a prophecy to us. Everybody stand.

This is my first closing. I've got a picture of a very stately gentleman. He's African-American — actually, started out African, South Sudanese man, and he's a naturalized citizen of the U.S. now. His name is Quat Noor. And so, a good man in our church who died during COVID, named George Clemens, is a veteran — U.S. military veteran. And so is Quat. And they met at the VA. And so George heard that Quat — who was an ordained minister in another denomination — heard that his bathroom was in bad repair. And George said, "Can I fix your bathroom?" This is not a called preacher. This is a man that has a heart to make friends, and make a difference. He said, "Can I fix your bathroom?" He said, "Sure." He came over, took dimensions, measurements, all that. Comes back with a truckload of, you know, a toilet, a sink, a tower — a shower, a tub. Not a tower. Soap, a tower — and flooring. He does it all. It's perfect. Quat says, "What do I owe you?" And George gave him a hug. He said, "You just owe me a hug." He said, "George, I don't know what kind of a Christian you are, but I've got to come to your church." He shows up — I met him. And guess what? We went to lunch. And guess who paid? All right. And we went to lunch again, and again, and again. Ordained minister, another denomination. He comes to my office on a Saturday. He wants to talk. We sit down, and we talk. And I said, "Pastor Noor, you'd already been filled with the Holy Ghost." I said, "Do you cast out devils in South Sudan?" He said, "Oh, Pastor, we cast out lots of devils in South Sudan." I said, "Really?" "Oh, yes," he said. I said, "And every time you prayed, they come out?" He goes, "Every time." I said, "Well, what do you say when you cast out devils?" "You say — I say, 'Devil, in the name of Jesus, come out.'" "And does he come out?" He said, "Yes. It comes out every time." I said, "So you don't cast out devils in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?" He looked at me like I was from a foreign country. He said, "Oh, Pastor." I said, "Why?" He said, "There's no authority in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

Thank you. I said, "Okay, I can work with that." I said, "Pastor Quat, if there's no authority in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, then why do you baptize in the titles Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and do not baptize in the name of Jesus?" When I said that, he fell back in his chair like somebody hit him with a rock. He said, "Oh, Pastor, you're right." He said, "Peter, on the day of Pentecost, said, 'Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins.'" He said, "Pastor, I'm coming to church tomorrow. I'm bringing my wife. And I want you to baptize me and my wife in the name of Jesus."

With George — George, not a preacher. Blue-collar George. So he goes back to South Sudan — he left again Thursday; he goes about twice a year. He came back after about three months. He said, "Pastor, I re-baptized every one of my 40 pastors. And they re-baptized their congregations. 5,000 people baptized in the name of Jesus." He said, "We're having more power, more authority, more revival, more miracles." This is how disciples multiply. This is how churches multiply. I'm telling you, we're in an epoch where the word of God is increasing, and disciples are multiplied, and a great company of priests — friends, I will give you an assignment. When you're driving around your city, and you drive by a church, don't wrinkle up your nose and say, "But they don't have anything." Why don't you do a drive-by prayer? Better than that: why don't you park in the parking lot, and just take a prayer walk around that church? Somebody might ask you what you're doing there. You just say, "I'm praying that God will bless you. I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will be poured out. I'm praying for revelation." Who would ever want to stop a prayer like that? I'm going to tell you something: we can take churches. We can take congregations. COVID has messed everything up. It seemed like the Apostolic people are the only people that know what's going on. Thank you.

I want you to lift your hands and pray for revelation and understanding right now. Ask that God will flip your calendar. I wish you'd shout right now like you're going to make a difference. Come on, let's go. Let's go, Oklahoma. Your prayers are powerful. Prayers on location are powerful. We're going to accelerate. Oh, let's go. Let's go. What's holding up the delay? What are you waiting for? Let's go make disciples.

Thank you. I'm done. I want all the pastors to come right now. All the pastors, just come and stand across the front. Every pastor that's here, please come. Thank God for these men of God. Just come and stand all the way across the front. You thankful for your pastor? Let's celebrate these men of God that are coming right now. Just come. Come on in, shoulder to shoulder, like a team — like a football team. That's right. Come on in here. Look at this. This is impressive. This is impressive.

Bishop, pastors: for two days I've told you everything I know about the Bible, everything I know about reaching the world. But something's got to change in my church that I serve, in the church you serve. If we keep doing what we've been doing, we'll keep getting what we've always got. It's time to change. It's time to release the saints to do the work of the ministry. It's time to send them out to teach Bible studies. It's time to send them out to go make disciples. It's time to send them out. Let's decentralize the church today. Come on, let's believe. They believe in you. Do you believe in them? We're going to send them out of here today. We're going to send them out of here today.

I want all the saints to lift your hands right now. And I want these men of God to turn around and stretch your hands out toward your congregation. Lift your hands toward the congregation. I want you to release them. I want you to release them, Pastor. Send them out. Send them out. Come on, let's go, Pastor. If you feel it, I want you to walk down an aisle, real slow, and start laying hands on people. Let's commission them right now. Come on. We're going to have a commissioning on Friday morning. That's it, man. You're a powerful man. Lay hands on them. Send them. It's all right if somebody gets prayed for three or four times. Go ahead. That's it. Just walk through the crowd and lay hands on them. To Jesus. We're going to go make disciples. In the name, in the name, in the name of the Lord.