Hallmarks Of The Apostolic Church

Praise the Lord.

Let's all stand together, pick your Bibles up, let's wave them around.

Hallelujah.

Let's say this together say heavenly Father, I'm here on Sunday night on purpose.

I'm one of those that's hungry and thirsty for more of you, more of the Word, more of the Spirit.

That's what's putting me over in all the challenges of life.

I am victorious in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Kings, that's correct, the Old Testament, 2 Kings, chapter four, and we're gonna get into the Word tonight.

Amen, all right.

Verse one Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying Thy servant, my husband is dead and Thou knowest that Thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor has come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.

And Elisha said unto her what shall I do for thee?

Tell me, what have you got in the house?

And she said Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house, save a pot of oil.

And then he said go borrow thee vessels abroad, of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few.

And when you come in, you shall shut the door upon you and your sons and upon and you shall pour out into all those vessels and you shall set aside that which is full.

How many of you know that makes absolutely no sense.

What a solution.

I'm sure she was tempted to think.

He's just so spiritual minded, he's no earthly good, I mean, what is he talking about?

And so, but she just did it.

So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons and brought her the vessels to her, and she poured out.

And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son bring me another vessel.

And he said unto her there's not a vessel more.

And the oil stayed.

And then she came and told the man of God and he said go, sell the oil, pay your debt and live you and your children of the rest.

And so I wanted to take this first miracle.

There's five miracles in this one chapter.

It's one of the most outstanding chapters in the Bible as far as supernatural examples.

But I wanted to teach you tonight on hallmarks of the Apostolic Church.

Hallmarks of the Apostolic Church.

You know it's been said of this church that it's an apostolic vine with a prophetic flow.

I'm not claiming to be an apostle, but I'm saying there's an apostolic dimension to your DNA.

When you're a member of this church, you know, apostles are sent ones.

Apostles carry forth mandates, and so when we look at the Old Testament, the Old Testament is for our instruction, it's for types and shadows and hallmark.

What is a hallmark?

Well, a hallmark.

You know, my ring used to have a hallmark on it.

It's worn off now after 52 years of marriage, but it used to read on there 14 carat.

So a gold ring will have a hallmark telling you how pure the gold is.

Most jewellery's 10 carat, 14 carat.

When it gets to be 18 carat or even 24, I mean 24 carats, no good as jewellery, it's too soft, it'll wear away.

So it's a hallmark, it's a mark.

And so there are things in this chapter and the five miracles in this one chapter that the prophet Elisha presided over.

If you go back in this same book, in 2 Kings, chapter two, you find out that Elisha was a minister or a helper to Elijah, and he followed Elijah around, he assisted him in the ministry, and when it came time for Elijah to leave, you know the story.

Elijah left in a fiery chariot he's alive in heaven today and so he was taking up body and soul into heaven as a human being and is there in glory.

The book of Revelation says he's gonna come back and he's gonna be on the earth for however long it was.

I forgot now, 14 days.

I forgot now.

I haven't read that chapter a while, but anyway.

But so he asked his helper.

Elijah said you know, what would you have me to do for you before I leave?

And Elisha said I've had a double portion of thy spirit.

Be upon me, I won't twice.

The anointing, the double portion in the Bible is for sons, firstborn sons.

So the Jewish people, when they had a son, they always awarded the firstborn son double portion of their estate.

So hence we have, you know, the story of the prodigal son.

That person, you know, was a very rich man and the younger son wanted his living, he wanted all of his inheritance before the father died and he said give me the portion of goods that falleth unto me.

And he left and blew it all on right, as living Bible says.

But the other son was mad and he was upset.

Well, he had the double portion.

He had twice as much as the other son because he's the firstborn.

I call him junior and Bubba.

Junior had twice as much as Bubba.

And yet he was mad.

Don't be mad.

I've always known that this church had a double portion because I wouldn't leave Lakewood until I had the full blessing.

I'm not his firstborn, I'm not his kin.

I just know that I sowed a seed for many years serving there without pay.

And yeah, ministers, you know, usually they get paid to do a wedding, they get paid to do a funeral, but except, you know, I can't even count the times that I did them for free.

I mean, I just didn't get paid.

You know, what am I supposed to do at a funeral?

Wait there for the grieving family to put 50 bucks in my hand?

I just don't have it in me.

So I just rather work for free.

But I sowed a seed, say.

I was able to give my pastor relief where he didn't have to do everything.

I was able to handle certain portions of the load.

And God, this is a double portion.

Church and the apostolic is in your DNA.

It doesn't make me an apostle.

I mean the fact that we started this church, that is an apostolic thing.

You don't start a church from scratch without a certain distribution of the apostolic.

And of course, brother Osteen was an apostle.

I don't think there's anybody would get out that he was a pastor's pastor.

I watched him but he would never claim that he didn't like titles.

He just claimed to be a pastor.

That was all I tried to talk to him about.

Oh no, I don't want to talk about that.

Brother Hagin, you know he was a prophet.

He would claim to be a prophet at times because you know that Jesus rebuked him for not functioning in the prophetic office, but he really was an apostle.

There's no telling how many thousand churches, tens of thousands of churches, have started because of Kenneth E Hagin and his ministry, his Bible school.

That is an apostolic work if I ever saw one.

So it's not about a title, it's about an anointing.

It's about hallmarks, it's about keys to believing God, for that dimension in your life and in your ministry.

Are you following me now?

Not about a title.

Forget about a title.

We're not trying to assign titles here.

We're just trying to.

We're trying to give you the point that when Elisha asked his servant, what do you want me to do for you, elijah had enough faith say I want a double portion of what you've got.

Now, how many of you know Elisha was a mean motor scooter?

I mean, you know, he killed 400 prophets of Baal with his bare hands.

You didn't want to mess with him.

You just didn't want to mess with these prophets.

Prophet Samuel was a fearsome man.

I mean, he had that hair all over his face, his big, long, bushy hair, and when he showed up in town people knew it wasn't good news.

When he showed up to anoint David as king, I mean, jesse's house was trembling in their boots.

What's he here for?

Oh my God, what have we done now?

You see, in the Old Testament the prophet stood for God.

That was the equivalent.

When the prophet showed up, that's God.

Now they knew it was a man, but he represented the throne of God and that power was with him.

So when he asked for a double portion for an Elisha ask, give me a double portion.

This is two chapters over in 1st, 2nd Kings 2.

Read it and kind of refresh your memory about how it happened.

He said well, you've asked a hard thing, but nevertheless, if you see me when all this goes down, it'll be so, but if you get lost in the fireworks, it won't happen.

What do I mean fireworks?

Well, you know, angels came down.

I mean a fiery chariot, fiery horses.

I mean the glory of God.

It was a fireworks display like nobody's ever seen, and he kept his eye on the prophet.

So when the prophet threw his mantle from the clouds, he picked up the mantle A mantle is a symbol of a mandate, an order and he slapped the water.

He said where is the Lord, god of Elijah?

And when he slapped the water with that mantle, the water parted.

And if you look at Elisha's ministry, he had about twice as many miracles as Elijah did.

So then again, with the types and shadows, this is some meat for you tonight, so you can chew it.

Why do I preach this?

Because you need to know who you are.

You need to know why you're here.

You need to know what kind of church this is.

We had people leaving the gold move to Philippines this morning.

I've never been in a church like this.

They couldn't take it, so I had to move.

No, her mother's 92, wanted to be with her mother.

They said they're coming back, so I'm taking a burger on that.

But yeah, it's an unusual church as far as churches go today, and I want to give you some of the scriptural things, the hallmarks of what we have operating here, so that you can tap into that power and it'll help you in your prayer life.

It will help you believe God for things that you might not believe.

For if you didn't know this.

And so he kept his eyes on Elisha, he received the mantle, he had the double portion.

So what you see then is that you had the man in heaven, elijah, who did works, and then you had the man on earth, elisha, who did the double works.

You have Jesus.

I'm going to go to my father, but the works that I do I'm the man in heaven.

The works that I do shall you, the church, do, and greater than these, shall you do.

So you see, elijah's a type of Christ, elisha's the type of the church.

Elijah's the man in heaven, elisha is the church on the earth.

Are y'all getting this now?

Types and shadows.

Jesus is the apostle and high priest of our profession.

Of course, he's the perfect example of all of the fivefold ministry gifts.

And he is an apostle why?

Because he was sent.

He was a sent one.

What was his mantle?

The lost sheep of the house of Israel.

How successful was he?

He appeared to 500 people at one time after his resurrection and only 24% showed up in the upper room.

So it's not about success, it's about obedience, it's about power, it's about doing what God told you to do.

Are you with me now?

So in this chapter there's Elisha.

We're seeing him function in the double portion anointing.

Say that word, double portion anointing, and I just I just claimed that for this church, this church has a double portion anointing on it.

Oh, that's bragging.

No, I'm bragging on God.

I'm giving you what God has shown me over 26 years.

It all started, you know, with an apostolic.

You can't start a church from scratch.

Now you can get hired without an apostolic anointing on your life.

Somebody can you know.

A pulpit committee can hire you, a church can hire you.

You can take over a church.

I've had friends that took over churches that started.

But when you start a church, you know, like we started this church, I mean it many, many, many more failed than ever succeed.

Because of why?

Because that anointing is not there.

I waited for that anointing to transfer on me before I left Lakewood.

That's what I learned about all the years that I was there and I'd see young guys and gals and I was quite a bit older than all those guys and gals that I saw leave and come back wounded, leave and come back hurt and beat up.

I mean, you know, if you, it's tough to start a church and not succeed.

It's tough.

People beat you up, spit you out.

It's tough and I've seen a lot of the hurt.

I did not want that for my family.

As older I had more responsibility and I just I said God, I'll obey you, but it's got to be the right time.

If anything, I was late, but at least I'd rather be late than be early, anyway.

So so again we have five miracles in this and this chapter that are hallmarks of the different dimensions of the apostolic way.

Apostolic, I don't understand it.

Well, essentially, the apostle is a sent one and apostle is the apostles of the lamb.

Don't get confused.

There's, there's apostles that are, that are on the earth today.

You know, mark Hankins doesn't claim to be an apostle, but that's the definition of an apostle Somebody like Mark.

He's got hundreds of sons and daughters In his ministry.

That and almost you go to the churches that invite him.

Almost every one of them has been on his staff at one time or another.

They've come through his home church there in Alexandria and one facet or another they might have been a youth minister or a children church minister or an assistant pastor or something, and I mean he's had hands on with his sons and daughters and so when I see him he doesn't brag about it, he doesn't go around saying I'm the apostle on my card and all that, he's just brother Mark.

Well, that's fine.

I mean, he didn't tell me to say it, I just know.

See, I don't.

He doesn't have to promote himself.

I know what it is, I know what the marks are, I know what the marks are, and so those marks are you're a pathfinder, you're a pioneer.

You get out ahead and go, you go.

You know, here's a wagon train of people that are leaving.

You know, let's say they're leaving St Louis and they're gonna go and they're headed across to the West.

They gotta go through the Rocky Mountains.

Most of them died.

Hardly any of them made it, but there's enough of them made it.

They eventually made it and they settled the West Coast.

But what do they have to have?

Well, they had to have people.

Pathfinders had to ride out in front of the wagon train to show them.

Okay, is the trail still good there?

Did it get washed out in the last snow melt?

Is this river.

Are you able to forward this river with your wagon, big old Conestoga wagon, and you've got a river that's flowing, you know, real heavy.

You're gonna lose everything in the river, drown and lose all your supplies and you'll die right there.

So you gotta have pathfinders.

A pathfinder, the pioneers.

They go ahead and they mark the trail.

They're ahead of the game.

They're ahead of, and I've always felt that about this church.

We're cutting edge.

That was one of the words that we had for this building.

Cutting edge.

People look at this thing.

How did you build that?

Where did you get that idea?

Well, god just gave us a series of words and we just obeyed him.

All right, all right.

So let's look at the hallmarks of the Apostolic Church with this in mind, that these things affect you.

If you're really one of us, If you're a member here, you commit yourself.

This is part of the benefit package that's available.

Okay, so the first one here that we just got through, reading about the poor widow.

What did we see with her?

She was broke, her husband died without life insurance, and he was a faithful man.

He worked for the prophet in some capacity.

We don't know exactly how, but he knew him.

So she came to him and said hey, we're broke and the predators are gonna come and take my boys.

You lose your boys.

You've lost a valuable commodity.

I don't mean that children are commodities, but when you're a widow and you're Jewish, there's very limited opportunity for you outside the home.

You're not allowed to go out and work, You're not allowed to go just any place.

Women were truly second class citizens they were, and so when you're a widow, the only source of supply for you is your family.

So her boys are tasked with taking care of their mother.

They've got to go work outside the home and they've got to support her.

And now the creditors are gonna take them because they owe.

So she says that what did she get?

She got supernatural provision and she got debt cancellation by the fact that God, through the prophet, showed her how to multiply what little she had.

At first it was so small.

She said what do you got in the house?

She said nothing.

Oh, yeah, I got a pot of oil.

But you can tell there was no faith on her part.

She wasn't trusting in that little pot of oil.

It's just kind of like having a cookie jar with a few hundred bucks stuffed in it.

Is that gonna help you very much when they're coming to foreclose on your house.

You know what's a few hundred bucks.

Even if you had that much stuffed in a cookie jar in the kitchen, wouldn't be enough, would it?

Except God knows how to multiply.

Are you with me now?

And then she had.

So she had supernatural provision, slash debt cancellation.

She had asset protection.

Her boys were her asset.

God protected her assets.

Are you with me now?

So you're lit.

You're right here.

You're in a building that has yet we've lived through that whole stage.

Right here we had supernatural provision.

We bought the property down the street which is now champions crossing, subdivision 92.7 acres.

People thought I was nuts, crazy.

Why did you do that?

Why, because God told me we were a regional center.

I started out looking at five acres and and suddenly I had a visitation.

When I was looking at five acres, I saw the circle with the star lit on the five acres and I zoomed out.

I saw it came like a capital on a map.

I said, God, what are you saying?

We're a capital.

No, you're a regional center.

I'd never heard the term before.

We just a year and a half old.

This was in May of 1996.

We're a year and a half old.

God says you're a regional center and so my faith grew from five acres to 20 acres, to 63 acres, to 92.7 acres, and I'm spanned of about four months.

I don't have time to tell the whole testimony.

And then, with that property, the landowner that we bought it from, and he held the paper on it, and we were making payments $5,700 a month, payments for three and a half years On a 1.025 million dollar piece of property, which was a bargain.

I don't think anybody understood it was a bargain.

I knew it was a bargain.

I'm in the business, I know what land sales far and it was cheap and that's not why I bought it.

I bought it out of obedience.

And Then he said I, I want to.

I've got a tax right, I got a tax problem.

He said I'll tell you what.

I'll take that land back, you know, and just and just just deed it back to me.

At that time we had a million dollars cash tied up in the.

Oh, I said I can't do that.

I got a million dollars cash, cash in it.

He said I'll give you then the 85 acres down on the corner.

It's a better piece of that's this property.

And now then we sold and the land next door to the subdivision, and so now we're debt-free.

We have supernatural provision, we had debt cancellation.

Point number one Are you with me?

Now?

This is what's available.

I mean, don't get bullied by the present.

Prices have gone sky-high on houses.

Well, don't be intimidated.

I've seen them go down.

Don't be intimidated and use cars have gone crazy.

Well, they'll go back again.

Listen, we've got supernatural provision and debt cancellation Available.

I'm not talking about flaky, I'm talking about part of the DNA of the anointing that's on this church.

Are you with me?

Now?

Everybody say, personally and Corporately, see what, what's good for the, what's for the good for for the corporate is good for each individual.

Amen, all right.

So let's look at the next.

I don't have time tonight to read all these, these stories in detail, but the next one verse, starting in verse 8.

Notice the woman, she, she sold the oil and paid her debt.

See, it's important for us to pay our debts.

We, we don't owe anybody.

We're debt-free now.

Praise God, I don't.

I'm not so religious and a brother Copeland's real hard line on debt and he's never barred for his, for his Ministry.

That's fine.

Brother Hagan was different than that and he had a different, and so I've always Trusted brother Hagan's idea.

I say I made a living on borrowed money.

It's pretty hard for me to condemn the way I made a living.

For 25 years I made a living on borrowed money, other people's money, so it's not a it's not a problem borrowing money.

It's a problem Barring money to eat a cheeseburger at McDonald's.

I Think that's poor use of credit cards.

You don't pay that.

If you don't pay that credit card off the next month all in full, then what you're doing is you're financing your happy meal For 30 or 40 or 50 years and you're gonna pay a whole lot more money for that down the road.

Are you?

Are you?

That's not good.

Okay, all right.

So the second one is the shunamite woman, and in verse 8 Elijah passed by Shunam where there was a great woman the Bible calls her a great woman and essentially she says you know, look, come in here, turn in here, I'll put you up.

And so she entertained the prophet and then after a while he kept coming and visiting and he said he told her husband, and he's kind of old, and she's kind of old, there's something, don't have any kids.

I Proceed this, the holy man of God coming by here continually.

I propose, honey, let's build him a house on the wall, let's build him a room and let's furnish that room.

We're gonna put a bed and a candlestick and a desk, a table and a stool and a and and we're gonna furnish that room.

And anytime, anytime he comes, he'll have his own private quarters and so he would.

Anytime he came to town, to shunam, he would Turn in and he had his own home, his own place.

And he asked his, his servant, gahazai.

He said what should be done for all this care where this woman has Blavished upon us every time we come in.

I mean it's chicken, fried steak, it's gravy, it's biscuits, it's.

You know, we get fed like kings and we, I've got this big old sleep number bed.

I mean it's got it's 46 inches thick.

No, none of that's in the Bible.

But anyway, she carried a whole lot for him.

He said go ask what we, what we can do.

He said, well, listen.

And so Gahazai goes, an interviewer.

And he said would you like us to talk to the king about?

No, I've twelve mom on people.

How did I say she wouldn't, she wouldn't cooperate with Gahazai.

And so the haze.

I says you know, look their childless.

And he said call them.

Said about this time, according to life, a year from now, you're gonna have a child, don't a preacher?

Don't you mess with me now.

Don't you be lying, don't you go lying to me?

See, he touched a nerve.

She had been believing for a child her whole life.

Now she's older, husband's even older, and I mean they, they ain't no way, except the prophet said this time, a year from now, you're gonna have that baby.

And she had that son.

I Said she had that son.

And so you have Verses 8 through 17.

You have an example of discipleship, you know.

He shared with them in their home and taught them about God.

You have birthing, birthed in her.

She was able to literally bring forth a child.

That's what we're all here to do.

We're all here to be impregnated from on high, to be given something to give birth to in the kingdom of God.

And these last days, both corporately and individually, I'm not saying turning barren into fertile.

She was barren, now she's fertile, turning crop failures into producers and distributors, are you with me now?

I Like what brother Osteen used to say give me a year of your life.

I gave him 15 and then, even after we left the church, I gave him another four till he went to heaven, faithful to him, and and so that's what it takes.

When you're, when you, when you're like that, you, you, you get into something where you're just where you're Able to be discipled, and then God sees that you're faithful and he's gonna download his plan and we're into things right now that I just dreamed of and didn't even know how would ever come to pass.

It's coming to pass right now.

This past year has been so many fulfillments of the things that God told me back in 1990s.

It's happening.

It's happening at warp speed.

I'll tell you, jesus is coming, this thing is winding up and what we've got doing, we've got to get it together and get it done.

It's all part of that apostolic anointing, the apostolic church.

You get anything out of this now?

Am I hitting over your head?

All right?

Number three we find in verse 18, the boy grew up, he was with his daddy out in the field and he said my head, my head, and he fell over and he sent him home to his mom.

He sent him home, get him home to mama, and she sat him on her knees all day until that afternoon he died.

This is the child of promise.

And the child died and she took him and carried him upstairs and laid him on the bed that Elisha slept on and she shut the door and she came down and told the servant you know, get me some a mule, get me, you know, told her husband, I'm leaving, I'm gonna go, is it okay?

It is well, see, that's an old song.

It is well with my soul.

Come from this testimony, loretta.

We need to get you to sing that again.

It is well with my soul, man, she puts it on the trough shelf.

It is well with my soul.

That's all she would say when her husband asked her, here's her boy dead, her child of promise dead.

It is well with my soul.

But she was on the way to see the man of God and so he watches and he sees it.

She's coming and he says Gehazi, I get out there and meet her, find out what.

To ask her if everything's all right, ask her if.

I mean, he just sent Gehazi out there.

She, and she said it is well, it's well, it's well, and she just kept traveling.

She didn't give him the time of day.

Gehazi wasn't much of a representative.

Anyway, that's another subject.

So she gets all the way up, she grabs him by the garments, gets on the floor.

Didn't I tell you not to lie to me?

Didn't I tell you he said oh, the Lord is hidden it from me.

See, prophets don't know everything.

He didn't know what was wrong.

He didn't pick up in the spirit that the boy was dead, he just knew something bad was wrong and she wouldn't leave Gehazi.

Here's my staff go lay it on the boy.

Well, gehazi didn't have any effect.

He laid it on the boy and the boy is still dead.

See, gehazi is kind of anyway.

He didn't serve as well as for Elisha as Elijah did for Elijah.

You know, I've got that's one of my questions.

I'm gonna ask the Lord.

It looks like Elisha sold a lot of good seed that he didn't reap a good harvest.

I think he made the wrong choice with Gehazi anyway.

Anyway.

So finally the prophet comes up there and he lays on him twice and he raises the boy and he presents the boy alive to his mother.

Hallmark number three restoration, resurrection, restoration, raising up dead dreams, raising up dead visions, raising up dead ministries.

You know, people come here from all kinds of backgrounds.

All kinds of things have happened to them.

Some of them their ears hanging off, from a wolf tearing their ear off.

Some of them are bit.

Some of them are gored.

Some old goat has gored them, driven them off.

Restore marriages, relationships it's a hallmark of the apostolic church.

Praise God.

I tell you, there's nothing too hard for the Lord.

There's nothing dead that can't be raised.

I mean just, the Bible is filled.

Look at Moses.

I mean his day was finished.

He murdered the Egyptian and God brought it.

It took awhile but it brought it all back around.

He wound up being in line to do it all.

Look at Jacob.

He messed it up, stole his brother's birthright, you know, tricked his father into getting the blessing and everything.

He was such a rascal.

And look at how God used Jacob.

I mean the Bible is filled with God giving people second, third and fourth chances.

Look at David Murdered a man's, a woman's, husband so he could be with her man.

That's low down Now.

God wasn't finished with him.

Are you with me now?

All right, then, in verse 38, keep on going, boys.

It's 44 verses in the chapter and five miracles.

Now you can't find a chapter like this.

I mean it's pretty amazing.

Lasha came again to Gilgall and there was a dearth in the land and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him and he sat under his servant, sat on the great pot and seeded potage for the sons of the prophets.

And one went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered there of wild gourd till his lap was full and came and shred them into the pot of potage If they knew them not, and they poured out for the men to eat came to pass.

They were eating of the potage.

They cried out and said oh about man of God, there's death in the pot.

They could not eat thereof.

And he said then bring meal.

And he cast it into the pot and he said pour it out for the people that they may eat.

And there was no harm in the pot.

Praise God.

And if you like gourds, well, I can pray for you to give you a better palette, but anyway I guess you eat whatever you can.

So here we have restoration, reclaiming stolen property or stolen wages.

I mean, it took a lot of work to get that meal cooked and it was poison.

They could have died eating it.

And he reclaimed it, he restored it, he redeemed it Supernatural protection.

Glory to God.

Do we need supernatural protection right now?

The fifth miracle, verse 42.

And there came a man from Baal-She-alashi whoops Baal-She-Lasha, baal-she-lasha, say that five times, real fast, baal-she-lasha, baal-she-lasha, no, don't do it.

And brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves of barley, full ears of corn and the hush thereof.

And he said give unto the people that they may eat.

So this guy has got a little bit of food and he says here, this is gonna feed the crowd.

And his servitor said what Should I set this before?

100 men?

You give him just barely enough for just a small crowd.

You expect me to feed 100 men with this little bunch of nothing?

Essentially, that's what he's saying.

And he said again give the people that they may eat, but thus sayeth the Lord, they shall eat and shall leave thereof.

There's going to be leftovers.

Does this remind you of the five loaves?

How about the seven loaves?

See Jesus, same thing.

So this is a type in shadow.

And so they said it before them and they did eat and they left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.

So multiplication of resources.

I guess the best example of that in this church was when we were in the seventh day church after realized we moved out of the Baptist church down the street Sunday mornings.

We would five, 600 people on Sunday morning.

We had a budget to match.

I mean we were doing very well.

And then the devil attacked our church because I took a stand on wake up the church and we had a lot of of a strife and division and people met behind the scenes, met against me and lied about me and took a lot of people captive and so when we we they sold the church out from under us.

We only had 90 days to find a new building.

So we wound up landing in the seventh day at Venice church.

Well, we had plenty of room to seat that many people, but we lost a lot of people in the in the whole mess that happened.

And so God wanted to prove to us that we're a regional center.

We had to move out of our normal area.

Most churches cannot move from this area and move all the way almost to I-10 on the Beltway.

You're about a mile inside east of or north of I-10 on the Beltway.

I mean that's way.

That's 15 miles from here.

If you're a local church, you're not going to make it.

It's like starting over.

We didn't start over, and so God challenged us to build a building.

And I said well, you know how do we raise the money?

We've got less money coming in.

We don't.

We have less people.

He said challenge the people to all, all of them, to tie, be tithers and then give offerings over and above the tide, as I direct, and I'll take care of the supernaturally supply, the need for your building, for your building.

Anybody remember me saying that we never hired some company to come in a capital campaign?

We never.

We never had people come to your house and sit in your living room and ask you to sign your life away and give a big, you know pledge.

Your pledge is late.

You've pledged $10,000 and you've only give $10 so far.

When can we expect the other $9,990?

No, we're not doing that and we didn't do that.

And you know what?

It's too long a story, but we built.

We built a build, we built this building.

God had to move all kinds of things, but we wound up in this building.

From that church we were in the seventh day church.

We moved out of the seventh day into this church.

Glory to God.

Talk about a miracle.

Multiplication of resources, multiplied effects.

See the summer fruits.

They didn't have enough, but it turned out to be more than enough.

They had, they had leftovers for it, god.

So you see, five miracles, which is the number of grace.

God's grace is sufficient.

And then the number five is the five fold ministry, which it takes, the five fold ministry for us to perfect and be perfected into mature.

And I'm so proud of this church because we have matured along the way over these years as a church.

And I see it, I see the maturity, I see the ability that we all have to move together in difficult times and uh, and so my hat's off to you.

And I just want to say boldly that glorious way, church has all the hallmarks of the apostolic church.

We have those and it's part of your DNA.

So rejoice, because you just appropriate by faith the things that you need, that you can identify.

It's in your DNA, it belongs to you.

Come on, lift your hands, receive hallmarks of the apostolic church, amen.

Well, did this go over your head or did you like it?

Did you receive it?

Amen?

I don't teach out of the Old Testament very often, but it's it's.

It's important for us to use the Old Testament.

Not everything in the Bible is to us, but it's all for us, and the main thing about the Old Testament is the types and shadows.