Turn over to 1st Corinthians chapter 12.
First Corinthians chapter 12, we're going to talk about the
five fold effect. We've been talking about finding
your fit in the body, Amen. And so I want to kind of talk
about 5 specific fits within the body because the Bible talks
about these five specific fits, OK?
And, and so I want to kind of center in on these, but we let's
look at First Corinthians 12 starting in verse 18.
We'll go to verse 20 and it says this now.
But now God has placed the members, each one of them in the
body just as he desired. OK, if they were all one member,
where would the body be? But now there are many members,
but one body. So when you look at us, you have
to see one. Although we're many, right?
It's good. It's true.
Amen. When you look across the
sanctuary right now, from my vantage point, I see many
members, but yet I see one body. Just one again, when you, when I
introduce myself to you, I do not introduce you, you know.
Hi, my name is Earl and I'm going to place my hand in front
of you so that you can shake my hand that happens to have
fingers associated with it and a thumb.
All right. And it will grasp your hand and
fingers and thumb, and we'll shake it vigorously for a couple
of times and then I will release it.
OK, That's Germany. OK.
And so we do not talk like that. Why?
Because we just extend us. Now, I'm not a hand and fingers
only. It's part of my skin, suit of
which isn't the entire me anyway.
Because I do have a soul, mind, will and emotions.
And I also have a spirit that you do not see, but it's on the
inside. But all three of those together
function as one. Now I can separate them for the
sake of, you know, whatever the case may be.
Like if I wasn't feeling well, what's wrong?
Well, I've got this pain in my elbow, OK, Now the elbow is part
of me and it's affecting me and I'm feeling it in my brain and
in the area, 'cause my brains telling me there's pain there.
And this is discomfort. And so you can communicate and
isolate. But again, it's part of the
whole body. And if it's messed up, it can
affect the whole body because again, even though it's a
member, it's I'm still 1. Are you hearing me?
Paul obviously used this as an analogy with the church because
we are the body of Christ. OK.
But I was talking with Steven Bradshaw the other day.
I'm going to give him credit because this is really good.
He says, you know in my thinking using Paul's example that we are
body. He said I just assumed if I was
an elbow, I'll always be an elbow.
But the reality is God places you in the body.
First of all, there is a call in your life that goes without you
even repenting. The gifts and callings of God
are without repentance, the gifts plural and callings or
calling or without repentance. Meaning God does have a purpose
for you. Before you ever met, you were
placed in your mother's womb. However, for you to get to the
ultimate place or assignment that fulfills the fullness of
your purpose, you may go through different places within the
body. Because again, Stephen was like,
if you were just an elbow then when you were in church serving,
you would have been there forever.
But that was the place that developed me for the next
assignment, for the next assignment till I ultimately
arrived at where I'm at today, which even now there are
additional assignments that occur.
Hallelujah. Amen.
This is why I say I'll be a better pastor in five years
because I'm growing and developing as well.
And as you grow and develop, then your influence and that
which God is allowing you to oversee, because again, what's
the Scripture? If you're faithful with little,
well, what's a byproduct of that?
You'll be faithful with man and it's good.
So again, your faithfulness can determine can enlarge your
sphere of influence. Which means one place you are
functioning within the body currently does not mean 10 years
from now you'll be doing the same thing within the body
although it's still in the body. Say Amen.
So as we see here in First Corinthians chapter 12, again,
18 through 20, as we kind of breakdown these verses, it's God
that places the members. And this is the, this is
something that is overlooked mostly within US churches, the
United States, because the United States comes from a
mindset of independence. You know, we rebel from the
monarchy. We became our own nation and we
associate independence with freedom.
So the minute we make this association, it becomes a
conflict in the church because freedom in the Kingdom is not
independence. In fact, independence in the
Kingdom is rebellion. I'm going to say that again.
Independence in the Kingdom leads to rebellion.
Hallelujah. Now God places you in the body
because he knew you before you even knew yourself, before the
world knew you. Which means He is creator and
creator of you. He is the Potter.
We are the So how can the clay tell the Potter where they're
going to go to church? Amen.
But we do it all the time in the United States.
Now, I'm not saying you'll be in the same local church your whole
life. I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying if the Lord's not doing it, you're probably
missing it. I mean, because you can
accidentally fall into the right church.
It's true, but not highly probable all the time.
OK. And again, if we are really that
spiritual, then we should hear God say go here because God
knows where He can grow you, develop you, and put you on the
right in the right body where you will grow and flourish the
most. So it's God who places the
members, each one of them, not one is excluded.
God's not overlooking you. This is not like red Rover, red
Rover stuff when they're picking teams and you're like, well,
nobody really wants me. No, God wants you and he's
placing you in a body, each one of you.
And it's where he desires. It's his desire.
And again, when we say God will give me the desires of my heart,
God will give you the desire of of what local church you should
be connected with. All right, So again, we're not
all going to have the same function because there's many
members. We are all individuals in the
Kingdom. You do not lose your
individuality. In fact, your individuality is
actually demonstrated more so because you are gifted and God
wants to showcase you in your gifting with the grace he's
given you in this amazing because he loves every one of us
when we obey God at his word, he's like that's my son, that's
my daughter. He loves and is well pleased and
has no problem put you up and saying, wow, this is my child.
I mean, he loves us and he wants to to to show us to the world.
Amen. Come on as a proud parent, like
that's my boy. That's my boy, right?
They win a championship, they overcome.
They they do great in school, whatever the case, and you're
bragging on man, the father will brag on those who obey him doing
exactly. He's like, that's my child right
there. So what he said about Jesus.
This is my beloved son in whom I'm what?
Well, well, there's only one way to please God.
The Bible tells us without faith it's impossible to.
So if the Father was pleased with Jesus, Jesus must have been
in faith. Well, how does faith come now?
Faith comes by hearing and hearing from the word of God.
So he heard what the Father said and he didn't just hear, he
acted on it. Remember when he told John, he
said John baptized me. John said man, I should be
baptized by you. He said no, you, you baptized
me. Permit it so that all
righteousness in can be fulfilled.
In essence, I read the word and this is what I'm supposed to do.
Dad has assigned this task to me and I'm going to obey him,
baptize me. And that's why the Father was
pleased. And when you obey God at his
word by faith, and he is pleased with you, He loves to herald
that. And he, everyone of us are
individuals with with graces in our lives to accomplish great
and mighty things. They are different, but they
complement. We're not competing, we are
complementing, and God is together doing more with us as
one than us being separated out trying to do something on our
own. Amen.
Now I'm going to quote a few authors today based upon the
teaching that we're going to have concerning the fivefold
effect. And 1st, I want to quote a
particular author by the name of Ernest Gentile.
Ernest Gentile said this. Why stress local churches so
much? Very simply, because the local
church is the key messenger of Christ to the secular community.
The people of a local church become the heart, the hands, and
the voice of Jesus Christ. This brilliant strategy is God's
way of maintaining active spiritual life in His Saints and
then through them, impacting the secular world.
When the people of a community see the members of the local
church body, they hopefully will see Christ.
Isn't that amazing? You understand on March 29th
when a group from Anchor Faith Church shows up at a track meet,
a community, a secular community in the sect, in the sector of
society called sports, can see Christ being operated through a
group that functions as one? Are you hearing me?
I mean, this is evangelism at its greatest.
You know, we love personal evangelism, which is 101.
But what about group evangelism? You understand?
I mean, could we pull up a tent and preach and try to get a
crowd and get a lot of and those things have worked in the past.
But you understand then people like, well, I'm just talking to
this one person and you should share your faith.
But you understand the church also should jump in each sector
of society with groups that are anointed to do these various
types of areas, and as one descend upon the place where the
light of God invades darkness, Hallelujah.
And that's what God always intended, not to remove us out
of the earth just because the Bible says we are not of this
world. That's just saying we're not of
the system of the world we've been redeemed from that we're
out of the domain of darkness. We are in the Kingdom of His
beloved Son. We are in a world we're not of,
but we can invade those sectors of secular communities with the
light of Jesus Christ and the church was always intended to do
so. All right, there is a gift that
empowers the body to do just that.
First Corinthians chapter 12, same book we were just in.
Jump down to verse 27 to 29. It says now you are Christ's
body and individually members of it.
Again, you do not lose your individuality, but you do lose
your independence. He goes on and say, and God has
appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third
teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps,
administrations, and various kinds of tongues.
All are not apostles, are they? And the answer is no, obviously.
They're not all. All are not profits, are they?
And the answer is obviously no. All are not teachers, are they?
And the answer is obviously all. They're not workers of miracles,
are they? The answer is obviously no.
OK, now that doesn't mean that you would be.
I would never work a miracle because there are things that
can happen in the believer's life should the Holy Ghost move
upon them with the gifts of the Spirit.
In this same chapter that the Holy Ghost wanted to move upon a
St. to minister to someone through the working of miracles.
It can happen now. With some, it may happen more
often based upon the grace in their life and their assignment.
But the working of miracles is not the big deal.
Jesus is the big deal because if Laura works a miracle, George
works a miracle, Brianna works a miracle, they didn't work a
miracle. It was the grace of God and
their obedience to do what God said, and it was the power of
God through them that did it because they themselves cannot
work a miracle. Yet how many people in the US
church flock to the person as if only God can work miracles
through? He goes on to say then or the
reason this passage is that he starts to define that within the
body there's individual members, but there are some very specific
tasks or assignments or we would call giftings.
Why would we call them giftings because let's turn over to
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19 to 20.
Again just kind of look and I'm building a little bit of a
foundation here. He says so that you will no
longer so you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you
are fellow citizens with the what Saints and are of God's
household having been built on the foundation of the what
apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the
chief cornerstone in whom the whole body being together is
growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are
being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit.
So in these two passage of Scriptures, this gift is is
communicated twice. There's two actually that were
communicated twice. That's the apostle and the
prophet. We're going to focus on the
apostle today. Again, Earnest Gentile said
this. The object of the fivefold gifts
is to enable the whole church to become spiritually mature and
truly function as representatives of Christ's
Kingdom. That is the object or the
objective. That's the objective.
The objective of the fivefold ministry is not for you to come
follow it. The objective is for those gifts
to equip you and mature you so that collectively are all
together are as one. We in turn represent Christ's
Kingdom, and again, we came out of the Kingdom that looks
nothing like the Kingdom of heaven we were in, thinking that
was contrary to the word of the King.
It requires training. I said it requires training.
And as we saw in Finding Your Fit, churches are more like
training centers. They are recruiting people to
come together for A cause so that they can accomplish
something within their local community and then expand beyond
that. That is the intent.
It is not so that you can sit and feel comforted of where
you're going to go when you die. That was never the church Jesus
was building assignment. It was to be a training
facility. I said a training facility.
It makes me want to make all of y'all stand up and do 10 jumping
jacks, right? But that's a little tight and
some of you would be hitting people, you know, and I don't
want anyone to get hurt, you know.
All right, it's a training center.
So let's look at Ephesians chapter 4.
We'll look at the latter part of verse 8 and let me read this one
verse and then we'll go on to 11:00 and 12:00.
And the latter of this verse said, and he gave gifts to men.
He gave gifts to men. Now verse 7 tells us that we all
received a measure of grace. And the reason we seem to
received a measure of grace is because we all are gifts.
Say I'm a gift. Say I'm a gift.
You are a gift. You are a gift not only to the
body of Christ, but to the world.
God has made you a gift. Now here's the thing.
Gifts are only good if given and opened because a gift given
that's never opened is as good as not having the gift.
I mean, y'all bless me. This last week I've received
gifts. And when I received those gifts,
you know, if I just would have left every card in the envelope,
I could have said look at this gift, but I would have not been
able to enjoy the benefits contained within the cards.
Are you hearing me? And I could go my whole life
saying, wow, I wish I had something today.
I wish I and I would really love to do.
And all the while I have benefits within gifts that I
haven't even opened up yet. Amen.
So you have to see yourself as a gift.
And unless you allow the five fold effect to go in effect in
your life, you are a gift to the Church and the world left
unopened. And the benefits that you have
as a St. does not take effect. Say that's not me.
Come on, say that's not me. Now let's just pretend a little
bit that I had a gift in front of me and it was not one of
these Sissy gifts that we have today, which is a bag with a
little fluff fluff in it that you throw out and there it is.
No, we're talking about the ones wrapped up.
Because the truth is, y'all all wrapped up anyway.
I, I, I would love to be around the person that gets born again
that all I had to do is pull the fluff out and there I could see
the gift. And it was that easy, right?
I wish it was that easy. But the renewing of the mod is
like a well wrapped package with much tape.
You're like, I, I mean, you understand, you got to RIP that
stuff open. I said you got to RIP it open.
We got to RIP this stuff and man, when that stuff starts
ripping, it starts screaming. People start screaming.
But again, we're just trying to get to the gift because you've
come in here like a pretty package all taped up, but the
real gifts on the inside. And it's time to tear the
package off and get to what everyone can receive benefits
from. So you got to pull down your
flesh. You got to get rid of your
carnality. You've got to put on, you know,
the love of God and the fruits of the Spirit.
Amen. So sometimes you're like, wow, I
feel like I'm a little ripped today.
Well, that's good. Your gift's starting to come
out. Say thank God, pastor's
unwrapping me. Come on now, let's unwrap you so
that your gift can be served. But he said he gave gifts to
men. So everyone has a gift.
But then in verse 11 he said, and he gave some and he gave
some, which means not all have this gift.
And this gift comes from God. It does not come from man.
Man cannot appoint this gift. Man can label himself, yet what
is associated with the gifts as outlined in the scripture will
determine whether or not they are really operating under the
anointing of that gift or if it is a self-proclaimed gift.
OK. And he gave some as apostles,
some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and
teachers for the equipment of the Saints, for the work of
service to the billing of the of the body of Christ.
Now leave this scripture up for a moment because I want to show
a few things now. How many groups are are listed
in this passage? Six.
It was a trick question. Why?
Because Saints are gifts. Saints are gifts.
OK. The difference about Saints is
we do not get a whole lot of context of the gifts that are
associated with just being a St. Because Saints the the variety
of those gifts are something the Lord would have a.
It would be exhaustive for him to try to describe each and
every gift he has placed within his Saints because gifts are
related to the area that they are in, the geographical
territory of which those gifts are released.
The variety is we can't even we, we can't calculate it.
The Lord knows it, but we cannot.
However, there are 5 gifts. There are 5 gifts.
Put that scripture back up please and leave it.
There are 5 gifts that are mentioned and there are is a
description of how those gifts function.
All right. And this is and all five of
those gifts, their purpose is the first 3 letters, 3 words of
verse 12. Why are they there for the
equipping, not for people to follow.
So quit looking for a prophet because you're not supposed to
be following a prophet. And if you're around a real
prophet, then they will equip you, which means they're going
to hurt your feelings at some point because no equipping comes
without some form of pain. Say Amen.
So again, I want to be right up close to the pastor.
You want to be close to the person who is going to initiate
pain and suffering. Come on now.
I mean, let's just be honest now that again, say, wait a minute,
now, you're supposed to be caring.
That is caring. But don't you think that a
pastor is not going to also lead you in places contrary to where
you want to go? Because again, we'll talk about
the pastor next week. The pastor is overseeing a flock
of sheep, and sheep, unfortunately, have a bad sense
of direction when left alone. However, they talk back to the
Shepherd often. Where are you going?
Why are you going there? Why are you heading that
direction? And it just looks back and go
back. Don't talk to me say Amen.
I mean, it's all good. Man, I'm going to preach real
here. Everybody wants it real till it
gets super real, all right? But we're real people, OK?
So he gave some ad. All of these are not for
following before equipping. They're for equipping.
All right, now, the next thing I want us to see in this passage
is they are for the building up of the body of Christ.
And in this context with Paul, he's obviously talking to the
church at Ephesus, a local church.
He was not saying that these gifts, although they may be in
places, you get to pick which one you get to.
All right, Well, come on, help me out.
I got a lot to preach here, man. Coach Hurley, would you stand
up? Coach Hurley is the baseball
coach for Saint Joe's. OK Academy.
Dayton, are you here? Dayton, stand up.
Dayton is a senior on this baseball team.
OK, Dayton, did you pick your coach?
If he's going to go to Saint Joseph St.
Joe's, he has a coach. Now that doesn't mean that his
parents didn't look for one. I understand all that cuz it's a
private school, but we get into public schools.
If you were just district there, then you get who you get.
That's right. So the player doesn't pick the
coach. Now why do I say cuz you get
into into get into college. We even get into professional
sports. Is it the player going to the
coach and saying I've picked you, I'm going to come play for
you? Is that how that works?
Or is it that the coach says I'm interested in this player here,
I'm going to go try to recruit them.
Now, I understand that you get multiple recruitment going on,
then the player can ultimately pick a program, but you don't
even get to pick the program unless the program first came to
you. You can be seated.
Thank you so much. Do you understand what I'm
saying? So again, it looks like oh,
Dayton gets to pick wherever he wants to go.
No, unless they have an interest in him.
I mean, I know Dayton was eyeball in Tennessee for
baseball. We'll forgive you bro, but the
point is if they don't call, the only other way he's going on is
he would have to be what they call a walk on.
He would have to show up somewhere and try to get on the
team and get them to know. But even it doesn't matter even
if he does all that, they still have to recognize him and give
the invitation. So the five full ministry here,
as Paul is saying, is that Saints do not pick the fivefold
ministry because Saints are in the body where it pleases God,
of which God has the coaching lineup.
Now this is going against all USA preaching.
I understand that, but I'm not from the USA solely.
I'm from the Kingdom first, I'm from the Kingdom first, My
citizenship is first in the Kingdom.
And that culture runs contrary to US culture and US
Christianity for that matter. So Paul never intended for the
Saints to hire their coaches. I mean, what professional team
are the athletes actually picking their own coaches and
telling the administrations or the owners of the team, hey, you
hire this for? I know they have some input.
I recognize that some athletes have aspired, but you know what,
Even when they have, those teams usually don't do great anyway
because again, there's personal selfish ambition, interest
there. And again, if the owners like, I
really want to have a winning team, I'm not going to have my
players dictate who can oversee this organization.
I'm going to bring the right person in to pull them up as
players. That's the intent.
Now that's just using a natural example.
God is not even considering Saints getting involved in
determining the five fold effect coaching team because God knows
how to put a winning team together.
Come on, say, say, say, you know that's true.
You know that's true, which means now when we first come
together, we may look like the bad news bears initially, but we
just stayed with the program. We going to be a championship
for this thing's over with because we guaranteed to win.
I mean, all we have to do is submit to the program that the
head of the church is orchestrating through the
fivefold ministry, fivefold effect of the coaching staff to
the Saints to equip us so that ultimately we get to maturity
and we dominate on a global scale.
The things that are hit that's happening.
All right, OK, so what's the original meaning of we're just
going to look at this one of five fold effect, which is the
apostle. We're going to look at it and
it's original meaning. OK.
The very nature of Apostolic ministry lends itself to being
relational, geographical and territorial.
All right. During the ancient Greek times,
the word apostle was a was a naval term.
So before Paul pinned this Greek word for apostle back in 300 and
something BC, the Greeks were using the exact same Greek word.
But it was in terms of a it was a naval term that described an
Admiral, the fleet of ships that travel with him and the
specialized crews who accompanied and assisted the
Admiral. In essence this term was that an
Admiral would have a group of people and would go into non
civilized territory of which then the team he had with with
him or her. But back then it was only a him
OK with him would then come in and create an infrastructure, a
community and a culture. Right?
Amen. That then the ones that were of
that land would become a part of that culture.
And once they created that culture and they established
that culture and caused the ones that were in that territory that
they that was non civilized and came in and brought them a
culture and they assimilated and grew in that culture and could
reproduce that culture. Then he would grab his team and
go find another territory to bring that culture there.
And this is what Paul penned when he said the apostle.
So this gift is relational, geographical and territorial.
Rick Renner, Greek scholar, said this out of his Sparkling Gems 2
books said the word apostle was a term of great honor that
referred to a person who was personally selected Commission
and sent on an assignment on behalf of a very powerful
government. Do you happen to know a very
powerful government right now? I do.
It's the Kingdom of God. It says this person wasn't
merely sent off, he was empowered, invested with
authority, and then dispatched to accomplish a special task.
So when we talk about apostles, we are discussing individuals
who are appointed, empowered, invested with authority by the
Lord and then dispatched to do a special task.
And their task is the establishing of the Christian
community in places where it had not existed theretofore.
Now you could say, and I would, I understand the US church
thinking we say, well let's go into places where Christ has not
been preached. First of all, no one can
honestly say that because the planets been around a lot longer
than we've been alive. So when we act like there are
actually nations that have never heard, in fact, the ones that
are the least converted or knowing Christ, actually it was
their first. When the original apostles went
out, they went through the Middle East.
So the gospel has been in the Middle East for 2000 years.
Can I help correct a few things here?
OK #1 is the Lord King of Israel OK?
Did he not say when he established this nation?
It originated with Jacob, who became Israel, 12 tribes.
Then ultimately it went into Egypt, of which a man named
Moses brought it out. Then he created a law, some laws
concerning his nation that would make them stand out different
from the other nations of which he's king.
He does not leave his kingship or he, when I say that he was
he, he let go of direct kingship and released it to a man.
When Israel rejected him in First Samuel chapter 8, they
said we want to see our king. Now, although God's king, we
want to see him and remember what the Lord said.
He said they've rejected me as king, not you, Samuel.
Give the people what they want all right, but he let them know
you take a man king. Here's your problems and did
they have problems, But now he also laid out within the within
Moses's writings concerning the nation that this is what will
occur with this nation. Deuteronomy 28 if you obey what
I say because he's king, his words life, you'll be blessed
coming in, blessed going out, heading out the tail.
Your enemy come for you one way, leave before you seven ways.
I mean, he's letting know this is the strategy on how we'll
deal with other nations. All you have to do is obey me
and I got you, he said, but if you don't obey me, then all
these curses have come. Now God is long-suffering.
He's merciful. And so we pick up and see the
rebellion of his nation page after page after page, and we
see nations conquer. And then they cry out to him.
And guess what he does? He comes back in and he delivers
them. We see this through the book of
Judges. Then we see this when he
establishes kings. He sees this with David.
We see this with other kings that rise up.
You know, we have a split of the Kingdom that takes place
between, you know, in the nation of Israel through the tribes.
And so we see this thing going up and down.
But there comes a time frame. It's not in the lifetime of one
person, but through the history books that the Lord comes to a
time with his own nation that he has delivered after their
rebellion multiple times, that he sends a prophet by the name
of Jeremiah and say preach to him again.
But let me tell you what's going to happen.
They're not going to repent. I have been with them for
hundreds of years. I, my word, has been with the A,
have seen the miraculous. It is through it has traveled
through every generation and yet this generation has risen up and
are so stubborn and stiff necked that they're not going to
repent. Here's the thing you preach,
they're not going to come. And even if they cried out to
me, he says I won't even listen. Now, again, ministers aren't
going to touch that, but I'm touching because it's in the
Bible. So there comes a point where the
Lord has to act on Deuteronomy 2815 and the rest of it.
If you do not obey me, these things are going to happen.
So much so that he he did it in part.
He let him see it. Every once in a while they were
turned over to certain, but this time he's like we're done.
In fact, it's in Jeremiah that this scripture says this the
Lord divorced Israel. In essence, he said the covenant
we're in. You've broken it so many times.
I'll never leave you, forsake you, but you have played the
Harlot so many times. You want to be out of this
covenant, fine, we're done. And Babylon crushed Israel.
Now, that didn't happen overnight.
So again, when we come to the end Times, although there are
billions of people on the planet, that doesn't mean those
regions have not heard, nor does it mean it's not in those
regions. Now, that doesn't relinquish our
responsibility to go. I'm not saying that God sent
Jeremiah even though he knows they're not going to repent,
because God is masterful. No one will ever be able to
stand before him and say he's not just and full of mercy.
It's never going to happen. It's never going to happen, all
right? And so he'll still send to
nations that he knows they have had thousands of, in this case,
a couple thousands of years of Christ the King, the gospel.
But those nations have rejected it.
They hate it. They kill people who love it and
there is a tribulation period awaiting their lives.
Say Amen. Anyway, so I say all this
because the apostle. It can go to an area that a
church may be there, but is the culture of the Kingdom there
'cause the Admiral was sent to bring a culture and we
understand in our nation that's a be 275 years coming up.
Not every church has the Kingdom culture.
In fact, there are a lot of US churches that people don't even
know the Kingdom is even a reality today.
The only thing they actually know is where they're going to
go when they die. And that was never what God
intended. So the apostle can move into a
territory for this purpose to establish Kingdom culture.
Are you hearing me? Rick Renner went on to say when
the word apostle was applied in the New Testament apostles or to
the early New Testament apostles and applied that an apostle was
a spiritual passport that gave believers right, gave believers
rite of passage into heavenly realms and into deeper spiritual
truths. One can certainly see that those
who were under the apostleship of Paul were taken into realms
of revelation that they could have never attained on their
own. His ministry was a spiritual
passport that gave them rite of passage into spiritual
revelation. It should be noted that any
person who operates in a genuine Apostolic calling will lead
people into new spiritual realities.
Now look what it says here in Acts 242.
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles,
teaching and the fellowship to breaking the bread into prayer.
Now let me say this about revelation again.
We were instructed at Rhema that we should pray the Pauline
prayers because the Pauline prayers talk are for the church
today. And and that means that we are
to ask the Lord that we will receive revelation knowledge
that we would receive a spiritual insight, wisdom,
revelation, these things that are all through these particular
scriptures that are eyes of our understanding would be
enlightened. Yet if you don't watch out in
the US church, if you start speaking something not
everyone's heard yet. Why are we praying the prayers
if we don't expect to hear something different than what
we've always? What's the reason for praying
them? Now let me say it this way.
There is no such thing as new revelation.
This is what I loved about Doctor Miles Monroe's book.
He called it Rediscovering the Kingdom because it wasn't new,
it was known. It just became lost through
tradition. Paul spoke a mystery concerning
the church, but it wasn't new because the Old Testament talked
about the light was going to come to the Gentiles.
So it wasn't a new revelation. It was a rediscovered hidden
truth that was already contained within the old covenant
scriptures that Paul by the Holy Ghost was able to communicate.
This is what God meant when you read this.
This is why Jesus after his death burial in the resurrection
came up on a couple of disciples remember?
And they were he was like why y'all so upset?
He goes like bro where you been? I mean you didn't hear about
Jesus. I mean, are you the only person
in Jerusalem that know about the prophet that was killed?
And it said that Jesus as he walked with them, began to
reveal to them from the the law that's the writings of Moses and
the prophets who he was. Notice it wasn't new revelation,
it was a rediscovered understanding of what already
existed in Scripture. So you understand, in our
society, when someone starts to minister something like, oh, I
haven't heard that before, why do we get resistant?
Because if it's in Scripture and you can prove it with two or
three, I tend to go through the whole context of the Bible if
I'm dealing with something. Why is it that we don't think we
can't see it more clearly? And why would we think that God
would not want to reveal more about His Kingdom, since that's
what this dispensation is coming to?
It's not coming to a suffering servant.
It's not coming to the lamb that was slain because the lambs been
slain and the lambs poured out his blood.
No, we're coming to a king now. You don't like want to
acknowledge him as king, but he's king nonetheless.
You might not want to see the Father on the throne as a king,
but he is 1 nonetheless, and he's coming to rule and reign
with his son. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
So we're not learning new revelation.
We are rediscovering truths that exist but we had not been taught
because tradition squeezed it out.
And the apostle will bring those types of spiritual insights. 2nd
Corinthians 1212 says this concerning the apostle as well.
It says truly, the signs of an apostle are wrought among you in
all patients in signs, wonders and mighty deeds, which again,
sometimes, sometimes I would love to say, OK, Lord, give us a
description of Saints. Well, there is a description of
Saints. It's a general purpose.
You're supposed to function in the fruits of the spirit.
You're supposed to walk in love towards one another.
You're supposed to reconcile. There's plenty that we can judge
fruit concerning Saints, whether you're functioning as a true St.
or not. All right, you're to be a
disciple actually, not a convert, which means you are to
be a studier of the word. This is what Saints do.
So we can find some things generally concerning the Saint
when it comes the apostle. They wrought in them all
patients, signs, wonders and mighty deeds.
Now again, reading from Rick Renner because he's a Greek
scholar, he said this patience is an attribute that most people
overlook, yet is just as supernatural as healings and
miracles. Put that scripture back up.
I want them to see this. Truly the signs of an apostle
were wrought among you in all patients now because Saints in
their carnality lust for power. You left around where you only
wanted power cause your daddy was power hungry.
And sin makes you power hungry. But when you come over to the
Kingdom, you're no longer power hungry because you have power.
You have power. It's just whenever God wants to
release that power through faith, not so that he can, so
that you can become God over here.
You're already a child of God, and again, you're not competing
with your brothers, you're just doing your assignment.
So it says the signs of the apostles now are patience.
Patience. So it's just as supernatural as
healings and miracles. It comes from a Greek word which
when seen, depicts a person's supernatural ability to hang in
there and to stay put no matter what forces try to stop them.
This is the number one sign of apostle.
They don't go and pastor for three or four years and then
pick up and leave. Now, some apostles are extremely
dedicated to just the planting of the church, raising up a
culture and doing another, and we're going to talk about that
here in a second. However, when they come in, no
matter what comes to say the church can't be there.
They will stay till it's established.
This is what Paul did when he came into a community and they
grabbed him and threw him in jail, right?
Well, after this whole turmoil, they're like, OK, you can go.
He said no, no, no, no. You tell them to come in here,
they going to come. In essence, he says, I just
planted a church, and I am not sneaking out of this place to
make it look like, you know, hey, when trouble comes, you
just got to go. No, they're going to come in.
They're going to escort me out because he was showing the
church. We have authority here.
We have a place here, and we will not be intimidated with
people who try to shut us down. And that's what Paul did.
Come on. That's what Paul did.
All right. He goes on to say Rick Renner.
He says people mistakenly get the impression that Paul's
ministry was continually visited with miracles of this nature or
of of miracles, signs and wonders, he said.
But one careful if, but if one carefully and honestly examined
the book of Acts to determine the regularity to which these
types of supernatural signs occurred, you will find that
these events did not occur non-stop in Paul's ministry, but
rather at pivotal and crucial moments when miracles were
needed to open the door for the gospel even wider.
These were supernatural signs intended to grab the attention
of the listeners and to serve as proof that the gospel message
they were hearing was true. See, in the USA church, we're
looking for one person to work miracles in every service at the
expense of you keeping your gift unwrapped.
But it's the apostles job to say, look, I'm not the only only
one who's going to raise the dead, lay hands on the sick,
cast out devils. You do it and you do it and you
do it and you do it. OK, let's give a little moment
here for the Spirit of God move. Why?
So that God can use somebody else.
Because here's the thing. How regular would it look if you
laid hands and you laid hands and you laid hands and you laid
hands. Because if you did it this week,
you did it next week, you did it the week after you did it 4
weeks later, you did it 5 weeks, six weeks.
We could go through a whole year where every week the miraculous
was happening, but it just wasn't happening with one
person. But again, we idolize.
Yeah, that's good. Come on now, you know where the
church went wrong. The church went wrong because it
called these five fold effects or these ministries titles.
The Bible doesn't call them titles, calls them gifts.
Subtle, but it's profound because the minute we called it
a title, then anyone who truly operates, all of a sudden people
think they just want power. Because in the corporate world,
well, their title is CEO, Their title is this.
Their title is that, their title is this.
So that rebellious nature of not submitting, oh, y'all don't want
to hear? OK, that's fine.
It's easier to kick because nobody's going to be over me.
Well, the Lord's over you. But then he has overseers.
Amen. Now ultimately you are in
control of your own personal destiny because how you submit
to how God's put it together is up to you.
But God has a way of doing it, period.
And let me just say it this way. There are plenty of churches
that will let you have church your way.
Burger King. Yeah, they're Burger King
churches out there. Have it your way, you rule.
Well, when you have it your way, you actually don't rule.
You'll be in bondage because you think freedom's independence.
And that may work in the US, but it does not work in the Kingdom.
True power works submitted to the king and his way of doing
things. Hallelujah.
And we know I was talking with a young minister this week,
talking about, you know, different churches wondering,
you know, will they continue? And I said, I'm going to be
honest with you. The answer is yes, because the
Bible tells us in the last of the last days they're going to
be seducing spirits and doctrines of demons and seducing
spirits are not just associated with the church.
Seducing spirits will seduce you to get into places of
employment, seduce you into into places of raises, seduce you
into other things to take you out of the church.
A seducing spirits there just to get you out of the church, to
gossip, to do all kinds of things just to get you out, get
you disconnected. All right.
However it goes on says that these last days that there will
be congregation members that will heap teachers to themselves
because they have itching ears. In essence, we're going to tell
you what to teach, we're going to tell you what to preach, and
we will pay you to do it. Hallelujah.
Amen. So it's going to happen.
It's going to be here. But the true churches, they'll
function differently, Amen. They'll function differently.
So again, these things are not just with regularity.
However, if all of us came together, we would see more
things being done because all of us together can work the size
period. Now I know in my own personal
life there was a child that had died when we were over in 312
laid hands. By the grace of God, she was
raised from the dead. OK, we've laid hands on people
with cancer. They've been healed.
We've I remember one time in India, we gave an altar call.
These people came up and I had to communicate to them because
in India they, they'll just add Jesus to their God.
So I said, you have to denounce every other God.
Now the minute I said this, this woman was here and her husband,
they had a child who was crippled and I said you're going
to I said you must denounce every other and Jesus is Lord.
Her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell out the men.
I said the name Jesus, that spirit that was on her left.
I had a nurse that was on the trip with me.
She came up. I knew it was a spirit that
left. I said she's fine, leave her
alone. She came to, I told that couple
specifically. You go home, you burn every
idol, you get rid of it. The next year they were still in
church and their daughter was healed.
The reason she was healed because that spirit of infirmity
that was associated with the idols couldn't keep her crippled
anymore. Hallelujah, are you hearing me?
Amen. Now, I know in my own personal
life, Paul on the road to Damascus had this encounter with
God that pulled him into his apostleship.
And when I was studying Rick Renner concerning these
particular things because he said one aspect of the apostle
is that they'll have a divine revelation moment with God.
And I never equated it with this, but when I was called to
ministry for the first time as I was driving to Atlanta, GA, I
had a 89 Ford pickup and I was driving to work and my whole
windshield disappeared and I saw myself ministering to thousands.
I mean, sea of people had an open vision.
It was undeniable. And I knew I was called.
I knew I was ministering the word of God.
All right, so these miracles that function with the apostle
are not just for tours. It also brought him in
deliverances. I mean, he was supernaturally
delivered for some major trouble by the Holy Ghost because of the
Apostolic call on his life. Look at this in First
Corinthians 1510, nine to 10. He says, For I am the least of
the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle because I
persecuted the Church of God. Well, that's how he felt.
However, he said, But by the grace of God, I am what I am.
And His grace towards me did not prove vain, but I labored even
more than them, than all of them.
Yet not I, but the grace of God within me, which tells us Paul
was driven. And he was driven not because he
was personally driven, but the grace on his life caused him to
drive. It was part of his Apostolic
anointing. And when it came to being called
that he didn't aspire, but he is what he is because again, we are
what we are because God picked us and made us that at the end
of the day. And so Paul was saying here
prior to this whole deal way I persecuted, I shouldn't even be
enlisted for service. But God knew before he was in
his mother womb this was his destiny.
And the fact that he tried to destroy the church didn't change
God's mind on his appointment. His assignment, he just needed
his repentance. I mean, so he could really walk
in it. Now, if he didn't repent, he
could have done what he did die, and the Lord would have said,
well, my apostle and he'd been like, I'm obviously not.
He said, yeah, I know. So what you were supposed to be
and you didn't repent to do it. But this is what I'll judge you
in based upon what I call what I destined you to be, not what you
did. Are you hearing me?
But he did repent and he says I labored more than them all.
And man, when he put his his list out, I mean, he started
throwing his resume out in Scripture so all of us could
read today. If you start talking about your
resume, people call you arrogant when really you're just talking
about the grace of God on your life, the grace of God, and when
you function in the grace of God that's on your life.
Well, then things will occur. What are some Apostolic
attributes again? Ernest Gentile said it this way.
An apostle initially has a relentless that relentlessness
that cannot be stealed, a drive to see God's Kingdom advance, a
determination to reach new towns and new cities and new cultures
and new peoples. Apostles want to plant the flag
of Christ in people groups. They have long been captive to
the Prince of darkness. They cry out with Peyton or
Patton. My God, I was born for this
hour. Now here's the challenge.
In the US church specifically, we love pastor, we love teacher,
and we accept evangelist. But the other two gifts we do
not talk about. There are some denominations
that function there and there have been abuses on all 5.
But again, just because there's been abuses doesn't mean there
aren't those who are functioning in them properly.
Because can I just, can I let you in on a little secret?
There's been abuses from the Saints, been a lot of abuse come
from the Saints. It's amazing how a St. will
don't want to be around none of the fivefold just because they
get around an abusive one if they're faults and that like I
don't have to do God's way now. I mean, the God of heaven and
earth can bring you to the gifts that are functioning in
obedience and right. Because if you're that good of a
St. you ought to be able to hear from heaven and get to the ones
that are doing it. Because if you're the Saint that
says you don't need it, you may be just as abusive as the ones
you left. Hallelujah.
We are to grow together. You are not to grow individually
independent by yourself. Hallelujah.
Are you hearing me? So apostles are big picture.
They're casting a wider vision of the church.
I remember, and I'll give you a couple instances myself
personally, I went to Pastor Jack Meyer's church down in
Plant City. He invited me to come minister a
couple of days. And so I came in and I, I mean,
I was honestly there 15 minutes, 15 minutes, all right.
And the grace of God started to activate my life.
They started talking about how they had run, was running out of
room, didn't have a size based upon their building the property
wasn't a whole lot, you know, thinking about how they, you
know, what are they going to do? They can't really grow in this
location. There's another little piece
that another pastor ended up getting on a, you know, secret
bid. He put in Pastor Jack put in a
dollar. The other guy I think did $1.50
and one I'm like, bro, she should have dropped $100 bill,
man. I mean, what's $100 anyway?
So he has this other that he that this new pastor has, he
can't even build a building there and he wants him to, you
know, trade not happening. So got this little quandary.
The grace kicks in. I walk in, right, we're talking
and I said, well, do this. And I started explaining how he
could change his sanctuary, how he could pull this wall, move
this here and move that. That's the anointing of the
apostle, big vision, bigger picture.
And they, him and his wife both looked around and they're like,
we've never, they never saw it, didn't consider it.
Now they are pastor evangelists. That's what they are.
That's their gifting. So then when I came in under the
Apostolic anointing, they have literal plans built that way
now. And when Pastor Marsh and I go
minister there in September, they're hoping to have it
finished, built out as we spoke it, by the grace of God.
But that's what I've gone into some churches where there's
pastors, and they're talking about how they're not growing,
and yet they have 80 seats. They have enough aisle space
that you could put a whole nother row in between it.
And they have enough seats for everyone who's currently coming.
So if anyone else comes, there's nowhere else for them to sit.
I'm like, you need to tighten this row.
This is Apostolic. You tighten this row up.
How many more chairs do you have?
Let's bring in another 20 or 30 chairs in here.
Yeah, but we don't have that many people.
Well, how are you going to get that many people if we do not?
That's the Apostolic. I was around another minister
not too long ago, didn't even say anything, but they wrote me
back and said, listen, just being around you gave clarity of
some things we had, why it was the anointing.
It's not me. It's the grace of God to release
into those gifts. That's what it does.
And the things that we do today are not because I pastored
Anchor Faith Church is because I was an apostle for Anchor Faith
Church that also pastors one of its locations.
Hallelujah. So in First Corinthians 92, it
says if to others I'm not an apostle, at least I am to you,
for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
Earnest Gentile said it this way.
Every Apostolic Church should equip, mobilize for people's
conversions, numerical growth, church planting, spiritual
maturity, penetration of secular marketplaces, and global
expansion. Apostolic describes the
ambassador function of the local church moving outward from the
local setting, planting churches near and far, reaching the
nation's as well as the local marketplace, impacting culture.
Now, if you've been with us very long, you realize we do that.
That's what we were ordained to do.
When I first came into Saint Augustine, the Lord clearly
spoke to me, said he said, Earl, do not buy 5 acres.
Don't do it. You are not going to find 5
acres and build a church. We're doing something else, and
I did not realize at the time it was the Apostolic call on my
life. Why in the world again does the
Lord want us to purchase them all?
Takes us 17 years to buy land. Why?
Because I'm not just pastoring. We are changing cultures.
We are in every sector of society.
We have deployed into every sector of society.
We've been government, we've been in sports, we're in
business, we're in education. I mean, there's not a sector of
society we are not currently infiltrating because the
Apostolic anointing on my life is filtering over into your life
to where we're having this Apostolic move.
And then because of that, people have come to me and say we want
your culture. And so initially we transformed
existing churches to our culture, like an Admiral who
went in with a special team to a location and say this is the
Anchor Faith way. Why?
Because they saw themselves in that vision.
They wanted to be a part of that culture.
They basically said, I'm not an island.
I am Anchor Faith Church just in Nicaragua.
See, this is what you have to understand.
Anchor Faith Church is not me, it's you.
You are, and that's what the Apostolic anointing does.
It causes you to see you. You're not doing the vision for
me because the minute you see yourself doing the vision for
me, you're not of me because you see yourself outside of me doing
something for me. I am Anchor faith.
You're anchor faith. We're just doing us.
You do your part. I'm doing my part.
And we accomplished some great things.
Why? Because Anchor Faith was never a
man or a woman. It was all of us.
And this is what the Apostolic vision will do.
But you know what? If you don't watch out, You want
me to be just pastor where I just care for you and your
family and think about you and you alone And like, why in the
world we trying to get something else?
Why do they want to plant churches all on every coast of
Florida? Why can't they ever be
satisfied? Come on, are you hearing me?
I mean, these things take place. Paul himself had challenges
because of taking territory. In fact, Rick Renner said this
because you push drive, you go after things, you're after the
world for the sake of Jesus Christ and expanding his
Kingdom. Listen, you have to admit, the
Kingdom culture is not in the planet.
Very well. Let's just to me, let me just
get real. The Kingdom culture is not
extremely huge in Saint Augustine.
And This is why God has you here, so you can deploy it.
And you know, you feel that, don't you feel that alien you
don't you feel that thing just rise up and you're like, my
gosh, man, I got to take some territory.
I've got to bring this Kingdom somewhere.
I mean, you sense that, Rolanda inside you, You're like, my
gosh, man, we have other expansion to do.
Sabrina, don't you feel that on the inside?
It's what attracts you, is what pulls you.
And that's what the Apostolic gift does.
Now, I pastor this location, but if you leave me only in the
pastoral role, you're going to be highly disappointed.
And you'll be disappointed because you don't want me to run
here or there or do this, that, and the other.
But you're telling me to deny the grace of God on my life.
And here's the thing. God has the fivefold ministry
right here in Saint Augustine. We have the apostle, the pastor,
the prophet, the evangelist, and the teacher, and you get to grow
underneath every one of those gifts.
Wow, how amazing is that? It's not common, I understand
that, but we need to value it. Are you hearing me?
But when you get into this Apostolic position and you start
taking territory and you start doing things in different
places, you will create conflict.
Conflict comes. In fact, let me read about some
conflict Paul had. It says this.
Paul frequently had to defend his apostleship because of
deceitful workers who swarmed in trying to exert authority over
entire regions of churches that he and other apostles had
established to which they had imparted their lives.
Apostleship was power, so those with impure motives sought to
invade Paul's territory and claim his fruit, seeing it as an
effective way to exploit someone else's work for themselves.
Says Those who coveted the Apostolic position used every
imaginable method to attract, tempt, lure, entice and seduce
the churches under the realm of authority of genuine apostles.
In Paul's case, the impostors could not find a legitimate
reason to accuse the apostle, so they use slanderous and even
stupid accusations as they tried to persuade the churches to
reject Paul and submit to their authority instead.
So every five fold ministry is going to have an attack of a
false one and Saints are going to come against it.
However, those that are true will endure because the apostle
#1 supernatural is patience. I can endure the season of
slander and overcome. I can endure the season of
attacks and not be moved because the grace on your life is to
accomplish it. I'm really excited about where
we're going and I'm more excited about where God's taking us and
I'm more excited about the next season we're in and get ready.
Just going to fill on up because of the call, because of the
assignment, because of the culture of the Kingdom.
I'm not looking for followers, I'm looking for workers, those
who want to be deployed, those who want to get in every sector
of society, those who want to take territory, those who want
to release their gift and get unwrapped and do something
significant in their workplaces, their secular markets, their
community. This is what we're doing and we
will continue to do it and we will not be stopped.
So, concluding, Ernest Gentile said this apostles are able to
lay biblical foundations and keep the New Testament pattern
of work among the churches. They strengthen and encourage
pastoral leaders, mobilize churches for action, and and
present the global vision of Christ and his church.
They inspire greater faith and empower workers to reach the
secular marketplace. Apostles present the big picture
in an impressive way, often with miraculous confirmation.
They hold fast the standard of members to be saved, water
baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit.
And I add this, live a life holy, separated unto God.
Amen. And so the role of the apostle
was functioning right here in Anchor Faith Church.
And I'm just going to say I am what I am.
Now listen, I do not ask you to call me Pastor Earl, and I've
not asked you to call me Apostle Earl.
You can do whatever you want to do yet in this place.
I've had both people, both acknowledgements.
I do say this though you want to.
The Bible says if you see receive a righteous man in the
name of righteous, you'll receive a righteous reward.
And if I'm brother Earl, you're going to receive righteousness
from me. That's right.
The Earl's received that. But if you want the anointing a
pastor, well then you have to acknowledge the gift.
And it's not I, but it's the gift.
I am what I am. But sometimes you need to
acknowledge the apostle because at times you need that gift.
Especially business owners and people want to take territory
because there's a gift and it's God who gave the gift.
So the minute if you disdain saying it to someone's name,
you're really disdaining God because it's his gift he gave.
At the end of the day. Now you can do what you want to
do. I'm going to do what I'm, I'm
called to do because I am what I am by the grace of God.
I said I am what I am by the grace of God.
And because of that, we're taking territory.
I said we're taking territory and we're going to take more,
not only in Saint Augustine, but in our state, our nation and the
world. And This is why I know the
Lord's talking to you, because He is settling you in to your
fit. Because whatever you release
locally, it has a more profound effect than just local.