Accidentally Apostolic... Impossible

Praise God. Why don't we give that hand clap to God? He deserves it. He deserves it, for the way He's moving.

I'm very, very honored to be able to stand here, and I mean that from my heart. The messages that we've already heard — we've heard from God through two messages, three messages counting Brother Haney, and then that word from Brother Buster. And I thank God for that. I give honor today — I could give honor to a lot of people, but I would be wrong if I didn't give honor to the Shock family, and to the Lumpkin family, and to the Mangun family, because they've made a major difference in my life. Seems like yesterday that it was 1984, when Bill Patrick told me to pack my bags — I was coming to a conference in Alexandria. It was the second Because of the Times. Had never been here before. I remember in the [Mangun] Center [track: 'ga manin Center'] — yeah — how my life was totally changed. And I got on the van going back to Fort Smith, and I didn't eat for seven days. And that was the time that my life took a definite direction. It also helped that that was when I saw Melanie singing in the choir, and we started a relationship that night that she didn't know had started for months. And I thank God for that.

Acts 2:1-4 — you could quote it, but we need to hear it again. Acts 2:42 through 47: "When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2:42-47 — I know this is really too much reading, but it's for a reason: "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."

I'm going to preach today: Accidentally Apostolic — Impossible. Impossible. Accidentally Apostolic: impossible. I believe in the deepest part of my soul that God wants to raise up a truly apostolic church. I believe it. I believe He does. But I also believe just as deeply that it's not going to happen with just praise and worship and talking in tongues. I think that there's a lot more to being an apostolic church. And let's lift our hands right now and ask for a spirit of revelation to come on us. Jesus, in Your name. Jesus, in Your name. Help us, God. Let a spirit of revelation rest in this auditorium, and let us understand what it's going to take to truly be apostolic. Let it be done, in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Can you give the Lord a hand clap of praise? Praise God, praise God, praise God. You may be seated.

I know that accidents happen. I know that time and chance happens to all of us. There are people that stumble into great wealth. However, it's the exception, and it will never be the rule. It's only foolish people that expect to build a meaningful, productive life on exceptions and positive accidents. Wise people know that this is not possible. Wise people know that you build your life on the rule, and then you celebrate the exception, or the positive accidents, if they ever should occur in your life. We know that apostolic churches are built on apostolic principles, or the rule. And we know that there are no exceptions. There is no such thing as an apostolic big bang happening. There is no such thing as an apostolic accident. There is no such thing as an apostolic lottery. It just does not happen. Accidentally apostolic is impossible. And being truly apostolic takes being intentional.

We, as the POA, have developed, as our vision statement — it's simple, it's to the point, and if you don't have a church vision statement, we invite you to use ours — it's to be a 21st-century apostolic church in principle, practice, and power. That is what we intend to become. We're very, very serious about the book of Acts and being apostolic, because "apostolic" means relating to, or traceable back to, the apostles. If it's not relating to the apostles, if you can't trace it back to the apostles, then it's not apostolic. And when you interject the word "apostolic" into any situation, it changes everything. It'll change how you preach. It'll change how you teach. It'll change how you train people. It'll change how you look at children and teens and adults. We can paint anything we want on our churches. We can call our churches anything we want to call them. With a little bit of money I can have anything printed on my business card. It says "associate pastor," but I could have printed "God Almighty" — but that would not mean that I was God Almighty. And there are a lot of churches that are calling themselves apostolic, and they wouldn't know apostolic if it slapped them in the face. Wouldn't know it. Wouldn't know it.

What we've got to understand is, when we start talking apostolic, it takes us from the mindset of just getting by. It takes us to a mindset of training champions of the faith. We're very happy to be Pentecostal. I am. I am glad that our church is the Pentecostals of Alexandria. However, "Pentecostal" goes very strong toward an experience, and we love that experience. But when you start saying you're apostolic, you move from just an experience, and you move to a lifestyle. If you call yourself apostolic, it's more than what happened on the day of Pentecost. It will be a lifestyle. What we must remember is that the goal is to be apostolic. The goal is to have apostolic churches. The goal is to be apostolic people.

We must understand that, whether it's in the natural or whether it's in the spiritual, nothing great accidentally happens. Look in the natural. Look in the sports world. Look in those making news. Nothing accidentally. If you're going to be great, you're not going to be great accidentally. If you're going to have an apostolic church, it's just not going to be because one time we had a good prayer meeting and the angels came in and everybody started talking in tongues. That's great, and that's got to happen, but that's not going to produce, within itself, an apostolic church. It's going to take more than that.

A few years ago we started getting very serious in this church about being apostolic. It was at that time that we started taking the book of Acts chapter by chapter, and reading the book of Acts. And when we would run across a principle, we would write that down. I don't have time to go through all of the book of Acts today, but I do want to take a few chapters and just point out a few principles that we found. And then let's move a few in, and then there's one that I really feel like God is directing me to talk to this church today, at this time, about.

Acts 1:4 and 5: "They were assembled together, [and He] commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but — what? — wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but — what? — ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." In other words, what the principle is: don't leave Jerusalem until you're filled with the Holy Ghost. The church was starting. There was much that had to be done. But God knew that it would—

—never be accomplished unless the Spirit of God was moving. The Spirit of God moving in our lives, and the Spirit of God moving in our churches, has to be the first priority. It doesn't surprise me at all, because you look at Genesis 1: God wasted no time laying down the principle. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." And when the Spirit of God moved, then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. What do we see? We see that Spirit precedes revelation. What we see at the beginning of the Word of God is that Spirit precedes revelation. What we see in Acts 1, at the beginning of the church, is that Spirit precedes revelation. That's why I'm happy when I hear that any other denomination is talking in tongues. That's why I'm thrilled when I hear that people are talking in tongues. There's no way that I would say, "Well, that's not the real Holy Ghost," or "that's not the real thing." The reason why I'm happy about that is because there's a biblical principle that Spirit precedes revelation. At any point they want to shut down revelation, that's their problem. But I celebrate, because I know that Spirit precedes it. And there are a lot of people in your cities that they're having prayer meetings in their churches, and they don't understand what they're feeling, but they need somebody that understands that there's an apostolic principle: that until the Spirit of God moves, there will be no revelation. We've got to have that. And that is in Acts 1. And if we're going to be intentional — or we're going to be apostolic — we've got to get intentional about the Holy Ghost, and it moving in our lives, and it moving in our churches, because the continual moving of the Spirit will allow revelation to come to us, and will come to people. So the real question becomes: what must I do as an individual to keep the Spirit moving in my life? That's right. The second question is: what must we do as a church, for the Spirit to have free course in our lives?

We leave Acts 1 — and there's much more that could be said, but no time — and we go to Acts 2. Acts 2 is absolutely full of apostolic principle and dynamic. Acts 2:1-4 — I won't read it all. It speaks of one accord in one place. It speaks of a mighty wind, cloven tongues like as of fire — it sat upon each of them. It talks about tongues, and the Spirit giving utterance. What we see in Acts 2 is unity, Spirit, wind, tongues. We see many things in Acts 2. But when you look at 2:37-39, then we see the complete new birth message. We see where it's repentance. I have no problem talking to my friends that are not Pentecostal about believing and confessing, because apostolics, we must realize that believing and confessing is in the Bible also. And another thing we've got to understand is that it's the whole of Scripture. Everything's got to fit. We are positioned in a great position, because we don't take an Olympic approach to the Word of God. We don't run down and jump over books in the Bible. And so when we look and we see that it is new birth — that it is Spirit, it is water, it is Spirit — I have no problem saying, "Yes, I need to believe on Jesus Christ. We've all got to believe on Jesus Christ," accepting, of course, every day. But don't stop there. You've got to repent of your sins, and you've got to get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and you've got to be filled with the Spirit. But there are a lot of apostolics that, once they get that, they move over here and they spend their entire life looking to their laps, saying, "Come on, idiot. Come on, blind guy. Can't you see? Can't you see?" When we don't realize that it's — what? It's a birth. It's a birth. It's not retirement. It's not the gold watch. And so the Spirit of God stands over here, looking to us that have received it, saying, "Come on — grow up. Grow up in the kingdom of God. Flow with what God is doing."

So then we look at Proverbs 26. It speaks of, "Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out." And Acts 2:42 provides apostolic wood to intensify apostolic flame. Acts 2:42 [track: '2:45'] speaks of this: they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, in breaking of bread, and prayer. Because why? Because we cannot be accidentally apostolic. We cannot be.

You look at Acts 3 now: Peter and John are going up at the hour of prayer. And you see, they meet this man, and he needs a miracle in his life. And he looks and says, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee." What? "In the name of Jesus Christ." We see this miracle. But immediately following Pentecost, the church, through Acts 3, is growing in power. There is a reason why it's growing in power. It's because the leaders were doing what apostolic leaders should do. And when apostolic leaders do what apostolic leaders should do, then there will be apostolic power. They faithfully were doing what they knew to do. They were moved with sensitivity, and they addressed real needs. They had the courage to face problems. They admitted their lack of natural resources. They fearlessly used their God-given authority. They freely gave away their spiritual resources. And they moved from silence to proclamation, and then to demonstration. Because there's just more than talking in tongues to being apostolic. That's what Acts 3 tells us.

In Acts 4, opposition strikes, because apostolic power and authority will not continue unopposed. So Peter and John were held until the next day, because of their — what? — their supernatural ministry. And many times I see that the needed element for our proclamation to become demonstration is unfounded, unprovoked opposition. I'm not talking about opposition that comes because we're obnoxious or rude. I'm not talking about opposition that comes because we talk before we think. I'm talking about opposition that comes because — many times, it's opposition that quite often is the vehicle that spreads and speeds the gospel. Many times it was our opposition that literally positioned the gospel where it needed to be. It was our opposition that got it on location. It's this opposition that landed Peter in front of the very influential group called the Sanhedrin, which was the supreme Jewish court of justice. Then look at the often-looked-over apostolic principle: when this happened, they prayed for boldness, not deliverance. At that point they were not praying, "Oh God, deliver me. Oh God, help — help the pain go away." No, they didn't. They realized that the opposition was part of a greater ministry of what God was trying to do in their life. And so we see this apostolic principle: boldness, not deliverance. I don't know when it's going to be that we're going to grow up and realize that sometimes the most dangerous place to be is smack-dab in the will of God. Right in the will of God. Why is it that we wrongfully determine God's will in our life by our present comfort level? Why is it that we wrongly judge our brothers and sisters in the ministry by theirs? "All hell's breaking loose in their life. Well then, who sinned? Well, are they not praying enough? Look at their kids. Their kids have gone nuts. I guess we really don't see what it's really like at home." No, that's not merely about the truth. There's just — sometimes — we can't talk about being an overcomer unless we overcome something. How in the world can we talk about, "We're going to overcome, we're going to overcome" — well, overcome what? We must overcome opposition. So it's no surprise to me that when they prayed for boldness, not deliverance, that it was this kind of prayer that shook the place.

We move to Acts 5. Satan realizes that opposition won't stop them, so he moves inside the church, to weak members. And it's lying and division. And it strikes through the pretenders, Ananias and Sapphira. And they foolishly premeditate—

—they lie to the Holy Ghost. And this sin of lying and division is then shown for the cancer that it really is, and the Spirit surgically removed it from the church by striking them dead. It's apostolic for schemers and liars to be exposed. It's apostolic. I don't know about you, but have any of you ever wanted to give God a hit list? Yeah. Hey God, right here.

Acts 1–5 shows us that the early church produced growth naturally. They practiced the apostolic principles of prayer, the Word, evangelism, obedience, commitment, sacrifice, healthy relationships, and faith. And then, out of that, growth was the natural result. We see that the leaders who led the apostolic movement: they understood purity; they settled for nothing less than purity and integrity. They understood power; it was a supernatural power that they knew would meet human need. They understood persecution; it strengthened their conviction. They understood proclamation, and they eagerly communicated the message. They understood priority, for they put first things first. They understood praise; even in adversity, they praised God in everything. And they understood perseverance; they lived a life of conviction over caution, because they knew that being accidentally apostolic was impossible.

We looked at 1 through 5 — because I'll end with 6 — but 1 through 5: prayer, and being Spirit-led; prayer, tongues, power, unity, new birth message in Acts 2; the supernatural in 3; and opposition in 4; and supernatural removal in 5. And now we go to the last chapter that we'll talk about today: Acts 6. Satan knew he could not stop them with opposition. He knew he could not stop them with persecution. Or he could not stop them with weak members. So he moves inside the church, past the members, on to the leaders, through the disguise of a true need. He brings, at that point, the trick of distraction. Because Satan is a master distractor, and he can only fight us where we are, and his scheme changes at every level that we advance to.

Acts 6:1-4: "In those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected" — have you ever noticed in your church that growth, a lot of times, brings murmuring? That is exactly what happened in the book of Acts — "then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of — what? — honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word." They chose men who were trusted among the people. They chose men that were empowered for the task. They chose men that were competent and intelligent. They were equipped. They were full of wisdom. And notice this: when that happened, then Acts 6:7 says, "And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly" — and don't miss this — "and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." Here is where we see, without a doubt, the apostolic principle of team, the apostolic principle of the body of Christ, the apostolic principle of senior leadership staying focused on prayer and the ministry of the word.

I feel like that God, at this time — what He's saying to me, you judge it for whatever it is to you — but I feel like that there is a vision shift that God, by His Spirit, is trying to give us in this room. So many times we've been dominated in our mind when we think of the harvest as an individual with a sickle in the middle of the harvest. But I think somehow — and follow me closely — that somehow, through apostolic principles, we can leave that mentality to many men driving many combines in the harvest. I feel like we can. I feel like that there is a paradigm shift — no, not that it can be easier, but that we can reap more.

I look in the Word of God, and the team concept didn't just start in the New Testament. There was an ark that floated, and more than Noah built it. There was an Old Testament tabernacle that took more than one man to function in it. We see a team of apostles. We see a team in church. And in Acts 6, it was this team principle that offset the inside attack to stop apostolic momentum by distraction. It was, at that point — this is a primary apostolic issue. And I feel that it is the reason that many churches and organizations cannot maintain apostolic fervor, power, and direction. I also feel like this is the reason why there are many senior pastors about to pull their hair out, and a lot of wives about to have a nervous breakdown. I look back, and I see, through my own eyes, and being connected with many of you: Acts 6 has been the brick wall that many apostolic ministries have smashed into.

What we must understand is, there is a one-two punch to this apostolic business. It's senior leadership focused on prayer and the ministry of the word. You heard it last night. You heard it this morning. We have to have that. If that's all you can do, then fine — don't leave that. We've got to have that. Don't leave that. If you're a senior leader, you've got to stay focused on prayer and the ministry of the word. You say, "It's easy for you to say — you've got a large church here. There's a bunch of you. You've got full-time staff." I'm not going into all that. I'm talking principle. I'm talking principle. If it's just you and your wife — I'm talking principle. If you're pastoring several thousand — it's a principle. But what would happen if we could get that second punch alive in our ministries? What would happen if we would take time to pour our vision — Chester Mitchell, as you said this morning — into people? What could happen if we could choose people that were known to have an honest report, or full of the Holy Ghost, or wisdom? What would it be, if we could take those kind of people, and we could successfully, apostolically deal with the tables? With the tables. What did the tables represent? It represented legitimate need.

Notice what the apostles did not say. They did not say, "Ignore the tables." No. They did not say, "The tables are not spiritual." They did not say, by word or their action, that we're too good to deal with tables. But for the good of the apostolic movement, they stayed focused on what they needed to focus on, and they apostolically took care of the table issues in the church. I submit today to this group that the apostolic movement is being tricked and trapped and terminated by the tables of legitimate need. Here we are in 2006. The kingdom of darkness did not want you to come and experience what you have, but you did. So now the focus has to change. And the focus that the enemy brings now is just taking this dynamic, this anointed atmosphere, and turning it into a memory. And what has happened so many times is there are many that have been here, and you've felt it — power — and you've felt this inspiration, only to go home and, by the end of February, be choked by tables. Choked. Choked by tables. But the apostolic remedy to this vicious merry-go-round of frustration is clear: we need senior leadership that will be focused on prayer and the ministry of the word, and others who will pay the price to maintain an honest report.

I speak now to every non-senior pastor. I am careful what I say. I'm not a senior pastor. I've never been a senior pastor. So some senior pastor will have to line out senior pastors, because I would be rebuking elders, and I would be out of my place. But to those of you that are not senior pastor: we've got to live our lives to where we can be worthy of them looking at us and saying, "That is a man or a woman of an honest report." What—

—they say is true. They're not liars. They're not manipulators. They have an honest report. We've got to have it. We've got to have it. We've got to have men that are full of the Holy Ghost. We've got to have people that are full of wisdom. Wise enough to have a church and kingdom focus over self focus. Wise enough to realize that selfishness is satanic. And we see that in Isaiah 12: "I will ascend. I will exalt myself." We've got to have people that are wise enough to stay in their own lanes. We've got to have people that are wise enough that if you find yourself behind a pulpit, you don't try to take over the service. We've got to have people that are wise enough not to take every opportunity to get drunk on the intoxicating drink of exposure — getting my name out, becoming this, becoming that. We've got to have people that are wise enough to agree with the heart of the leader when you don't agree with the decision of the leader. We've got to have people that are wise enough to understand that some answers cannot be shared by us, and that wisdom is in keeping your mouth shut. We've got to have some people that understand, and they're wise enough to know, that God's will is one thing, but God's timing is another. We've got to have people— We're hitting Acts 6. Acts 6 is stopping our ministry, because we're not getting it. We're just not getting it. We've got to have people that are wise enough to know that if there's not a ministry happening outside the pulpit, then God knows the church doesn't need us in the pulpit. We've got to have people that are wise enough to understand that we've got to live a life that's worthy of trust. There are a lot of senior pastors that can't even take a week off, because they can't trust what somebody will do in their pulpit. That's a shame. That's an absolute shame. People that will get in pulpits and say, "Well, I don't know if I should say this or not" — for God's sake, shut up. Don't say it. Don't say it. Wise. Wise.

I'm not up here trying to be mean, ugly, or crude. But I can tell you, I've watched it. I've watched you be moved. I've watched you walk out of here. I've talked to you, and I've seen you come up for air, and down. Why? Tables. Tables. Tables. Legitimate need. Need. It's God's will that we take care of widows. It's God's will that we do these things. But the tables are what is tricking us.

I want to tell you: it is my responsibility to live my life in a way that this man right here, if he's ever out of pocket, that he could just tell his family, "If you've got a question, find Terry." That's what's got to happen. And every senior leader has to have somebody that understands that. That's apostolic. It's apostolic. A lot of you non-senior pastors: don't cave in. Don't cave in when other people are treating you like you're really nothing but some peon, because your name's not on the lead. Don't cave in to that. Don't cave in to that at all.

I want to tell you what'll happen. The problem is, there are too many people that aren't big enough to become small enough to be used by God. That's the problem. That's the problem. That's where it comes down. And apostolic ministry is taking a hit because of it. And I'll tell you what God will do. I'll tell you what God will do for you. I've been that for him. And you know what? God sent me a Tim Rutledge [track: 'Tim rutage' / 'Tim Ry']. And I've been able to look at my kids and say, "Hey, if I'm not around, talk to him about anything. If there's something you don't even want to talk to me about — Kendra, go talk to Tim. You tell him what you don't like about me. You can tell him anything, because he is connected to my soul."

And I'll tell you something else, non-senior pastors. Last week, Brother Anthony took a morning off, and we had prayer. We had prayer, and I was taking care of that, because he was away for 24 hours, getting his mind into this meeting. I was leading the prayer meeting, and I said this at the end of the prayer meeting, before I turned it to Sister Mangun. I said, "Let's have focused prayer on Brother Anthony." I said, "Because he's got to know when the Spirit says sing, when the Spirit says preach, when the Spirit says pray." And we were going through, and we were having focused prayer. And I was back there talking about [asking] people to fast for him and all that. And I'm going to embarrass this guy, but he's just going to have to understand. And it was at that point — Jason Robbins, raise your hand, Jason, please. I know this is going to embarrass you, but I have to say this. It was at that point — that man had just come off of a seven-day fast, like a lot of leaders in this church. It was at that point that God spoke to that man and said, "You start fasting now for Terry, and don't quit until he's through preaching." This man went on a seven-day fast, and he'll eat whenever I'm through preaching. What I'm saying is: get your eye out of the mirror, and just start. God will do it. God will take care of you. God will give you what you need. God will do it. Why? Because it's apostolic, and nobody loves this church like God does.

It's tables. It's tables that are getting us. Tables. Evangelism tables. Discipleship tables. Fellowship. I understand. I understand, and I'm thankful. I thank God that at age seven, my father gave me a hallway in the Fort Smith church and said, "Terry, this is your hallway. Keep it clean." I thank God for that. I thank God that I've washed cars and cleaned commodes and all that. I thank God for that. I'm not building a throne there, in the thrones, but I thank God for that. But when I look in the Old Testament, and when I look in the New Testament, I see that there is — you can look at David and his men. There were men that were doing exploits. Yes, sir. David was not the only giant killer. And when you look into the New Testament, you see Stephen. He wasn't a peon. You see those seven men. And you see: what is the Spirit saying? The Spirit is saying that there may be many lead men that could be a lead man, but sometimes you've got to group them together, and somebody's got to let one man lead. And somebody's got — if we don't get this, we're going to be sentenced to get what we've always gotten. What we've always gotten. And it takes us widening our focus.

I'm going to hurry to a close, but there's a few more things I need to quickly say. We've got to widen our focus. You think with me — two years ago, year before last, I guess it was — I was getting ready to address our interns at the reception that we have for them. It was the class before last. And I'd been thinking all day, and really nothing was coming to me. And I was sitting at the table, and was fixing to be introduced, and it was like a principle came into my mind, and I was like, "Oh, thank God." And it was this: Preaching. We've got to have it. He chose through the foolishness of preaching. We've got to have it. Then there are a lot of people that never truly get there, or they get there and that's all they get. Then we move to, shall I say, programs. I'm thrilled with programs, if it's a program that's going to help us with an apostolic principle. Talk to me about it. If it's a program just to make everybody feel good — off we go — not interested in that. Don't have—

—time for that. But if it's a program— And what I've noticed is that a lot of people's minds never leave preaching. And then some get into programs. Yeah. But what came to me was: there's another word that we're missing, and it's processes. Then it came to me about our 24-hour prayer. This church preaches prayer. We preach prayer. Yeah. But we have a program of 24-hour prayer. But if we just preach prayer — and we have to; that's where it starts; everybody understands what I'm saying, I hope; it starts there — but if there's not some kind of a program, then there's going to be some people to do it, but not as many people. Right. But if we just preached prayer, and we said, "Hey, we're having 24-hour prayer," it wouldn't be doing what it's doing, because we have a process of 24-hour prayer. You know what the process is? I'm an adult Sunday school teacher, and there are a few other adult Sunday school teachers — Melanie's class, some other class — and every Sunday morning I get up in my class: "Hey, we've got an empty prayer shift here. Who'll take this one?" Week after week after week.

You want to talk preaching, programs, and processes, and the power of it? Just preach missions. Let's cancel Sheaves for Christ — that's a program. Or let's just preach, and let's just do Sheaves for Christ, and everybody forget your [PMS — track garbled]. Now what happens? Why? Because you've got to preach, you've got to program, but until you get it down to the day to day in people's lives — process — then what do you have? You have frustrated ministry.

You came in today, and you see our latest process, and what we are seeking to do — and don't read it now — but what we're seeking to do is, we're seeking to get everybody connected at the Connect Point. And if you're looking for some kind of a program that does all this, there you go: turn that thing over, and get your people into it, because it's all apostolic. Everything about it is. Like, why do we frustrate ourselves on processes? Because it's so slow. Jesus was a miracle worker. Everywhere He went, He performed miracles. But never did He lay His hand on a baby, and it become an adult. Never. It never happened. And we think that— What's getting us? It's the day to day. It's the process. It's the day in, day out. It's not when we're at church and feeling God. That's not what gets us. It's just that day in and that day out. It's that process. But we've got to have it all. I believe that we can put it all together. I believe that we can put it all together. I believe we can.

But brothers and sisters, there are some principles that they were serious about. And they were serious about being connected. And they were serious about communication. And we've got to get it together. We've got to get it together. We've got to get on the same page. You talked about it — Brother Haney talked about it: the Tower of Babel. What happened? Satan is very good at learning lessons from God. Satan can use Bible: that a divided house will not stand. Satan looked at what God did to confuse Satan's work, and now what Satan's doing is using the same thing God did in our churches, because our communication on our levels of leadership is little to none. This is not rocket science, right? We've got to get a vision, and we've got to communicate the vision. We are made in the image of God. God had creative power in His words. It's words that dispel confusion. It's opening up our mouth. And it's getting the right hearts and the right heads around the right table, for the right reason, to see apostolic ministry be catapulted into the area that God has already equipped us to be able to see and to have.

You say, "Well, I don't know. I just don't go for all those staff meetings, and I don't go for vision-sharing meetings and all that business." Well, then call them holy convocations, if you're afraid you're going to be like the corporate world. If you're afraid you're going to get too much into all that, then have a one-hour Bible study, and then have a one-hour prayer meeting, and for fifteen minutes share your heart. That's right. I'm telling you that in my — what I feel in my spirit is, somehow we're seeing something, and it's just not that hard: decide where you want to go, and get together at McDonald's and talk about it. Talk about it. Talk about it. Communicate. Talk. Open up your mouth, and talk to people. That's going to make a difference.

I can tell you this: there's a little bit of talking that goes on around this joint, I promise you. I promise you. He's wired [track: 'wired 440']. And there's a lot of people that — "Well, I just don't like meetings. I just don't like—" He doesn't either. He doesn't either. But do you know what he's done? Thank— Let me talk to you a second. Do you know what he's done with his life? Let me just open it up; he'll be okay. Do you know that 9:30 on Tuesday morning, he won't be playing golf? And it doesn't matter who asks him to play golf. He walks out of his office and goes up into a staff meeting, every Tuesday morning at 9:30. Every — for years he's done that. Does he stay there all day? Lord, no. Some of us do, but he doesn't. That's Tuesday. Let me tell you about Wednesday. 9:00: our music people and me, we go into his office every Wednesday morning at 9:00. Why? Because we're going to talk about the Sunday services coming up. Why? Because every week the Sunday services are coming up. Every week they're coming up. And when we walk up here, we would like for everybody to know that we realized that every week the Sunday services were coming up. That's every Wednesday morning. You know what's going to happen every Wednesday at 11:00? The finance administrator and me and Brother Anthony, we're going to meet, and we're going to go out to eat, and we're going to spend a couple of hours together every Wednesday that we're in town. Why? Why are we going to do that? Because until the angels start coming down and sitting on everybody's head in a prayer meeting, and getting everybody on the same page around here, we realize it's a Spirit-flesh connection, and there's something that the Spirit's not going to do, that we're going to have to take our flesh, and we're going to have to discipline ourselves, and we're going to have to do — we're going to have to communicate.

Yeah, you say, "Boy, you sure are—" It's getting a little quiet in here. Well, that's fine. Because I can tell you that the only thing that is standing between a lot of you and your ministry being more fulfilled — and you seeing men come up in the ministry, and people's lives being changed — and if you don't like that, then let me give you what you will like: and more time to stay focused on stepping to the pulpit with a real word, because you haven't had to spend all your time doing nitpicky junk. Until you start doing that, it's not going to happen. "Well, but if you want something done right, then do it yourself." Can I tell you the rest of that story? If you want something done right on a lower, non-apostolic level, then keep doing it yourself. Then keep doing it yourself.

What am I trying to say today? I'm saying that it's going to take this kind of connectedness. It's going to take this kind of communication, if we're ever going to move and drop our sickle and take up a combine. Right? We've got to understand that we will never accidentally be apostolic. And we've got to understand that if we're going to step out and say that it's essential, then we'd better start getting intentional. If we're going to stand up and we're going to say it's essential for somebody to be baptized, then we better get intentional about having people down there to meet them, and to be able to work with them. And we're going to say that it's essential to pray, then we better get intentional about it. And what we've got to understand is this: that God wants to raise up a supernatural apostolic church. He wants to raise up a church where the vision can be realized. And if we will get back into the book of Acts, and if we'll take out a legal pad, and we'll start reading down, and start putting down those practices, and start practicing those principles, then what's going to happen is, those principles practiced then lead to power.

As I close — as I close — January the 1st, first message this year, you stood in this pulpit and you told us that there will be an apostolic church in Alexandria, and that we wanted to be it. And he said in my ear — which, I only wish I could write down everything he says in my ear — he said, "Well, as long as I'm here, there will be." But he said, "It might not be us, but there would be one." All right. That's— Allow me, in closing, to walk out just a little bit edgy, but I'll stay safe enough. Here is what has been in my brain and heart for about five years now, solid. As I look at this, as I talk to people: I hope that when God looks down — because there will be revival; there will be; there is now, there is now — but what I fear in my heart is: I hope God doesn't look down and say, "You know what? It'll be easier to give a revelation of Oneness — that's right — of baptism, and separation from worldliness, to somebody else, than it would be to reveal discipline and strategy and connectedness and communication for us to be able to get it on the same page." Israel, we have no corner on this. We have no corner on this. The United Pentecostal Church has no corner on this. But we can. But we can. But we've got to get it together. And we've got to quit calling ourselves Apostolic. We've got to be Apostolic. And that's more than just talking in tongues.