8-12-21 Day Service with Rev. David Smith

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] he's a lord this morning how are you this morning in jesus name i want to encourage all of our home missionaries if you can sit in these two center sections so that the speaker again if you're in the center sections and you're not a missionary no problem we have plenty of room but i encourage you implore you i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god thank you for helping us today would you lift your hands to our great king who is the possessor of heaven and earth and would you love him today with your voice would you love him today with your strength god i give you worship god i give you praise for what you are about to do lord god we are the sheep of your pasture lord god we are your possession and i praise you today oh god let there be a spiritual impartation today lord let the windows of heaven be opened upon us that we may behold your glory that we may see you o god the lord you would speak with us today face to face oh god i pray that you would draw near to us as we draw near to you god i pray today that you would receive glory out of everything that is done today i give you worship for oh god you are wonderful you are beautiful you are awesome you are holy you are great and greatly to be praised hallelujah would you just give a shout of triumph to the lord for he is good hallelujah there is victory in the house today because he is our king let's love him together in jesus name [Music] how many know that there's victory in this house this morning can you just put your hands together and worship him this in morning midst of the fire turned down the heat and made the devil alive he is always with me and he's always working all [Music] victory [Music] i've seen the waters when the tide was real high i thought i would sink but he was right by my side he's always winning he's always working on things my good [Music] in my victory i'll pronounce all he's done for me victory [Applause] [Music] victory [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] yes is [Music] [Music] there was a mountain in my way victory is the lord for the victory in this place has he given you victory in this house the bible says thanks be to god who always gives us the victory it doesn't mean that you're fighting for victory it means that he's already got the victory for you i wonder if we could just lift up some praise and worship and thank god for the victory that he's given us [Music] oh oh [Music] over every enemy of darkness the lord is my strength [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hallelujah how many knows that the battle belongs to him this morning it's not our fight but he's fighting for us this morning come on i know we can do better than that i know it's 9 30 in the morning it might be a little early to give god some praise you might have a little sleep in your eye this morning but he's worthy [Music] [Applause] together [Applause] when all i see is the battle you see my victory [Music] when all i see is the mountain you see a mountain move and as there's nothing to fear [Applause] when my hands lifted the battle belongs to you and if you are for me who can be against me [Music] for jesus there's nothing impossible for you and all i see are the [Music] all ashes see is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] you go before it nothing can stand against the power of our god you shine in the shadows you win every battle [Music] nothing can stand against the power of our god you shine in the shadows nothing can stand against the power of our [Music] against the power of our [Music] everybody oh [Music] [Applause] somebody give up some praise in this house [Music] the battle belongs to our great god who is king forever hallelujah would you love him with a loud voice [Music] i give you worship i give you adoration i give you praise there is none like you oh god hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah i am so thankful that god is among us it is as though in my mind i can visualize god's throne is set in this place and he is seated upon the throne among us and we are worshiping him as our crowned king can you visualize that with me right now can you worship him as the king who is literally seated in heavenly places there is no dominion that's greater than him there is no threat to his his power his glory his majesty his might he is our god and he is crowned with glory and honor hallelujah i'm so very thankful that god has orchestrated our steps the lord has literally i believe directed this conference and i give god praise wednesday night of this last week um brother godwin was with us brother ben while we're the watts and in my spirit i just felt i said i am so thankful that brother mike watts from fort worth is with us i love that guy i just just started feeling it and it was as though god was setting it up i talked to him on that thursday i said man i'm so glad that you're here and i want you to know that you're a part of this then we got the word that brother david shatwell who typically for years and i give god praise for the continuity of that has been here to address this precious body of believers that he has been sick in his body i immediately felt a confirmation that brother watts should come and to speak and to share before he comes would you help me let's pray for brother shatwell that god would heal him strengthen him and lengthen his days for god's glory would you lift your hands father in the name of jesus i lift up david shout well to you i pray god heal his body i pray god strengthen him i pray god calls him to live oh god and pour into the kingdom of god what you have given him to contribute let it be for thy name's sake let it be for the glory of your kingdom i praise you god i give you great praise for healing this body in jesus name would you give a hand clap to jesus as brother mike watts comes right now in jesus name to god be the glory how in the world could i ever fill one of david shatwell's shoes i know both of my hands will fit in one of his but i'm not here to try to fill his shoes thank god because i can't i'll confess to you now i can't but i will do what i've been asked you may be seated thank you so much what an honor to be here and uh for those that don't know me my name is michael watts i uh i'm a church planter and once you're a church planter you're always a church planter you never forget how to do it and so in fact i'm thankful because this this year this january we started our church over again because i didn't like the way last year ended i'm also a foster child why does that matter because my pastor is tom foster i love my bishop i appreciate him december 1st we'll make 19 years since we started the pentecostals of fort worth and we're excited about what god has done i also privileged to serve as a north american missions director for the north texas district and i'm thankful for that opportunity so i want to give honor to our pastor tom foster and our i want to give honor to bishop and pastor dylan for this great meeting that has helped so many people including us i couldn't help but give honor to my lord and savior jesus christ because nobody knows like me the wretch that i was when he reached so far to pick me up and i stand in almost days that he's allowed me to feel to experience and to see what we've been blessed to see and i give honor to my sweet wife we are laborers together and uh if you're not working together missionaries start today don't wait till you get home find an altar somewhere today and start today and you will not regret it and i enjoy what jesus is doing brother dylan asked me to speak on a specific subject and i will but i've got to obey the holy ghost first and it will it will tie in i want to go to the book of second kings chapter 16 and verse number 10 when brother dylan spoke to me last week that day i wrote in my ipad this is something that i had to look at a very simple uh illustration but it's it's imperative to the foundation of a church no matter what size and and to get it early on it will be will be very key in second kings 16 verse 10 and king ahaz went to damascus to meet particular pilser king of assyria and saw an altar that was at damascus everybody say he saw an altar and king ahaz sent to uriah the priest the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it according to all the workmanship thereof and eurasia the priest built an altar according to all that king ahaz had sent from damascus so eurizia the priest made it against king ahaz came from damascus so by the time king ahaz got back from damascus the priest had already duplicated this altar that he saw in damascus and verse 12 when king was come from damascus the king saw the altar and the king approached to the altar and offered thereon and so today i'm going to talk about a accountability to god and the first accountability that we have to god is for the altar that we sacrifice on king ahaz was attracted to this new altar by its appearance but why was the priest so willing to build this altar according by the word of the king in the house of god as priests of the house we should have some defense against or for the altar of god i believe the reason to be that sacrifice is painful and obedience is costly and that is the definition or the purpose of the altar a place of sacrifice and flesh likes easy altars we all do we like those easy altars and so now he had made a new a new altar and introduced it into the temple he brought a new plan he brought a plan from damascus that changed the order or changed the purpose of the altar he began to use it for his own private practice our own private sacrifices then as this new altar could occupy this the post of honor where the brazen altar was the purposeful altar the altar of sacrifice he removed the old brazen altar and he put this new altar that was more fashionable that was more attractive that he saw and what began in secret became public at first he would sacrifice to this altar in secret and then he put it up front he moved the altar in verse 13 second king 16 13 and he burned his burnt offering in his meat offering and poured his drink off him and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar and he brought also the brazen altar which was before the lord from the forefront of the house from between the altar and the house of the lord and put it on the north side of the altar so he moved the altar of the lord and he replaced it with this new damascus altar and so what he did he said i want to i want to build church this way i want to worship this way because this old way of sacrifice is not as attractive remember it was based on what he saw he saw what somebody else was doing and said i want to do what they're doing and so he moved this altar out of the way and then so what what we're challenged to do is keep the brazen altar because that's where the flesh is sacrificed and anytime we remove the altar of sacrifice from ministry it becomes flesh it becomes us now now it's my it's what i'm doing and so they move the altar of the lord for a new look patterned after the world and the lord instructed me today to say to to us don't move the altar of the lord it has a purpose and a place it is the first piece of furniture it is the first stop of every sacrifice don't move the altar for attraction don't move it for convenience don't move it for relevance don't move it for acceptance with the people make sure we keep the altar of the lord where it belongs don't move it here's why because somehow king a has found that an altar uh that this altar of idolatry more valuable than the altar of the lord and this occurs most often in our day we can relate it to careers or money or even entertainment so when it when when the altar sacrifice is not as fun as doing something else then prayer becomes or the sacrifice becomes something less so it's common today to see people sacrifice an altar of prayer at the altar of income or career it's common today to see people sacrifice the altar of prayer at the altar of entertainment well i would pray but and so as church leaders were tempted to minimize prayer meetings because people don't come as much and this is an altar that we have agreed we're not going to move we still have prayer 30 minutes before every service we still have prayer every tuesday night we still have prayer every saturday night and so we're going to keep that altar in place here's another danger of it so ahaz saw this altar but say he saw the altar he didn't feel the altar he didn't experience the altar he saw it it looked good it looked good and so this desired new altar he wanted it to be like others so he desired to be like damascus uh but he would decided he would keep the old altar around just in case and so god is not fooled nor deceived when we have other altars he knows idolatry when he sees it trust me and so when believers move the altar of the lord from the front of their life it is evident that a new altar and a new lord have been selected he calls this idolatry in apostolic revival we build we do not build altars to strange gods we build altars to the lord jesus christ in apostolic revival we continue to sacrifice at the altar of the lord and so as we sacrifice at the altar lord we cannot move that altar it must be first here's why once the altar was moved out of its place it became less important this this new nice looking attractive relevant altar with no sacrifice or you might get a crowd but jesus won't move easy-going altar becomes a lifestyle and then we become critical of those that do so since the value of the altar has had diminished why not make it more relevant less relevant let's make it look more like it's acceptable the next step for this altar was the altar to to alter a-l-t-e-r the altar a-l-t-a-r of the lord in second kings chapter 16 verse 17 king a has cut off the borders of the bases and removed the labor from off them and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it and put it upon pavement of stones he cut the legs off the altar and lowered it to the ground so that it would not be as attractive or even even as identifiable he diminished the level of the altar in the natural because it had diminished in the spiritual and so that's why if we're accountable to god for the altar we've got to keep it up where it belongs don't cut the legs off of it don't minimize it and don't lower it think about it a king over the people of god set up a pagan altar at the temple of the lord and so he did it because he knew it would please people because he liked the fashionable design of the altar and because he thought it would bring him success i mean look at damascus it sounds like a temptation that every church builder faces today don't move your altar you're apostolic don't move your altar don't move his altar we're apostolic we're apostolic it's convenient today to put our trust in the tools the techniques and the principles of worldly success but we're building a church after the book of acts we are apostolic we can't build it after the world and that's why i'm thankful for this meeting the apostolic conference we can seek to please the world as ahaz did but but we're we may impress somebody but we're not going to have the power of god it's dangerous to pattern a church after a business plan and not a bible plan we cannot afford the church to go to the world for the methods and principles of growth that's why we need this meeting and others like him now i'm going to the lord showed me how to prevent all this you want you want to know how to protect your altar it's very easy leviticus chapter six verse twelve i'll tell you how to prevent your altar from being moved or chopped down leviticus chapter six verse number twelve and the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it it shall not be put out and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning and lay the burnt offering and order upon it and he shall burn there on the fat of the peace offerings verse 13 the fire shall ever be burning upon the altar it shall never go out have you ever tried to move a burning fire pit i don't advise it i wouldn't try it if i keep fire on my altar every single day the risk of it being moved or chopped down minimizes to nothing i can make sure that the altar of the lord remains in my life and i will remain to be an apostolic sacrificial child of god i encourage you today keep the fire burning on your altar so you can't move it while it's burning keep it burning look at somebody close to you and say keep the fire burning keep the fire burning prayer is important at the church and the altar is the first place the believer should stop every time we come into his house and as the priest he said it's my job to put wood on the fire so we maintain this influence and respect to grow an apostolic church when we respect god god respects us he's a law of reciprocity he gives back we reap what we sow and so when we remain accountable to god for the altar he remains accountable to us for the power isn't that a beautiful concept i want to share a testimony and now i'm going to move into why why we believe it's so important to uh be accountable to god uh how many of you have have had guests in your church you had you had at least one guest at least one guest okay good if you haven't had a guest then i've got another session we can do about outreach i've been privileged to serve with brother foster we've done some church growth training together and we were at a one a certain church somewhere in the world and uh we spent i don't know three and a half four hours teaching training he was doing most of teaching i was doing a lot of amen and and was great and we got ready to leave and uh the pastor sat down and he asked us to come he was invited us and he uh uh asked us to tell him everything so we did all that we set and we got ready to leave he sat down on the foyer of the church and he said well thank you all for coming so much and he sat down a little pew in the in the foyer vestibule and he put his arms on the back of the little pew and he said i'm going to sit right here until jesus comes until revival comes and i looked at brother foster and he looked at me and he said let's go because what he just said is if we're going to sit around and wait on jesus to fill the church don't you think he would have already done that now i believe there's a there's a revival coming because if if god can speak and a bunch of dumb animals can run into a boat i'm simple okay i believe he can speak and a bunch of smart people can run into the church okay so i do believe there's going to be a great harvest in the last days but he said occupy till i come that word occupy doesn't mean sit home on the internet until he shows up that word occupy means get a job go to work for him in his kingdom so i'm going to remain at the altar but i'm also going to remain accountable accountable for what god has done i've brought a slide and let before they put it up i want to pre-face this by saying this is in no wise to to gloat or to bring attention to us is to show you what you can do that's it okay go ahead thank you this is uh 18 years of average weekly attendance for the pentecost of fort worth it's it's averaged by 52 weeks uh that's the average weekly attendance over the past 18 years we're on our 19th year now and so as you can see there is only one ugly year that it went down and i'll let you guess what if you can't see it you keep looking or maybe you won't and so it was because in 2020 we had our lowest first time guest count in years you can figure out why and i'm gonna i want to share with you today why i believe god has honored this so much and i just wanted you to see that we started little bitty just like just like everybody else in here in fact we started our with four our family of four is what we had our first uh prayer meeting with our first service uh we had about i think we had 34 in service we rented a little apartment room a little clubhouse and an apartment complex and then we bought a another building and used half of it and then kicked the ball down and used the rest of it and god did the rest but i want to show you i want to share with you today how how jesus brought this to pass it was about the fifth year 2007 and we were we were at uh a place that of revival and you can see the jump in the chart there and we were both working in the office one day and i said can you print off a list of of guests from from last year i just want to pray over them and she printed the list off and brought it to me and i don't it was maybe 17 pages and i'm like i just want the guests from last year and at the bottom it had the total on the number i think it was 713 or something like that and when i saw that number brother dylan my heart sank and i felt so convicted that i fell on the floor in that little office and i prayed god don't kill me because i didn't know where all these people were i didn't have a clue oh i could go through the list and find a few of them because they were still coming but i didn't know where i oh god and the lord then began to to share with me what i'm going to share with you in matthew chapter 25 this is where he told me to go matthew 25 he said for the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods his goods and he hunted one he gave five talents to another two and to another one to every man according to his several ability and straightway he took his journey this is why what brother bounds preached last night is so important we can't we can't judge ourselves among ourselves because god is giving us according to our ability all right so why is that important that's that was my first question okay what's ability i don't i can i can run a vacuum cleaner i can drive a car i can mow the grass ability no that's not what he's talking about and so some are ones some are two some are five but god wants to know what is our ability so i looked up the word ability and the word ability in the greek there is the word dunamis should resonate in some of our spirits the word dunamis which means inherent power or ability reproductive power it's a word the same word as power in acts chapter one verse number eight so he gave he said i will he said he delegated these or gave these talents according to one's power or ability which was was likened to the holy ghost the power of the spirit of god and so when we look at the word uh witness witness everybody say witness i know it was referenced last night and the word witness there in the greek caught my attention i said okay what does it mean to be a witness that means to go knock on somebody's door and tell hey jesus come and come to my church no the word witness there is the greek word martus m-a-r-t-u-s it means it's in english it is our word martyr one who bears witness by his death and i said okay there's that altar there's that altar so when i'm going to have the power of god i'm going to be a witness or i'm going to decrease so that he can increase i said okay so here here it is and the the definition of witness sees one who can one who can or does a ver av er what he has seen or heard the word of heir means to testify or prove so the holy ghost is given to us for more than just to give us the power of god it's given to us to overcome the fears that try to rise up in us when jesus said go talk to them about me go invite them to church go tell them everything's going to be all right now am i the only stubborn one that he has to tell several times i don't think so but so that's why he gives us this ability and so based on this ability he gives us the power to do it so ability is what motivates us it's what keeps us going it is it is what the lord uses for his determination so how do we grow ability we grow ability by accountability what we use what he gives us we return to him we're accountable we're subject to him we give an account uh paul said in romans 14 12 so then every one of us that shall give account of himself to god and so we're all going to give an account for everything that we've done but let's bring it back into focus what about these guests what about these 714 guests that we had in our fifth year of existence that's a whole other lesson how you get them you got we didn't just wait on them we went out every saturday we went out every everywhere we go in fact i've got invitations in my pocket right now i don't ever leave home without an invitation it don't matter if it's here because if they on the back we put the the code so they can scan it it takes them to our website and they can look up they can send us a message hey i live in madison mississippi do you know where a church is absolutely i can send you the parkway and so we drop them i drop them in the airport uh last two weeks ago when i went home uh flew into dallas fort worth i had to ride the train to another terminal and i'm standing there and i do my best to just obey jesus i'm standing there and the lord says put one of those cards on that ledge right there i'm like jesus i'm at the airport people that come here they don't live here and then i saw a little worker come up there i said okay i'm sorry lord and i put the card there it's better to obey because he knows what he's doing and so what we find then is that in the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country and where he called his own servants and delivered to them his goods and he gave one five talents to another two to another one so everything almost that we are or possess or meet with may be considered as a talent the word talent in the greek is the word talent on and the definition of that is something of value it it was a monetary peace but it also identifies as something of great value and so when when jesus uh gives these uh he signifies a gift or a piece of something for us to use and so as i sit back and i said okay i don't understand lord what are you trying to tell me with this with this parable i see what you're saying but what is it and then i related the 714 guests to the goods of the lord people are the lords right people belong to god he directs our steps so god ordered their steps to come to your church our church and then here's what happens next in verse number 19 20 matthew 25 19 and after a long time the lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them reckoneth with them and so he that received five talents came and brought other five talents saying lord thou delivered unto me five guests and behold i have gained beside them five more guests and his lord said to me well done thou good and faithful servant thou has been faithful over a few things that will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of the lord you want to get joy in the church bring some people he also received two talents came and said lord thou deliver us unto me two talents behold i have gained two other beside them he said unto him well done good and faithful servant thou has been faithful over a few things i will make thee ruler over many things enter the unto the joy of the lord and so finally the word reckless means to be accountable to give account and so then in verse 24 he drops down and says then he which had received the one talent came and said lord i knew you you were hard i i i knew this i knew i wasn't going to do good i know you expect me to do things that i can't i i know you want to reap where where you've not sewn and gathered where you you've not strolled but i was afraid i was afraid this is why that spirit of fear that was that was addressed last night must leave our churches this is why that spirit of fear you cannot allow it we cannot allow it to resign he said i was afraid and i hid your talent in the earth and lo it's still there and i believe this is why some churches don't grow because we hide what god gives us instead of putting them to work and so the lord answered him and said that wickened and faithful servant a speaking and slothful servant lazy servant go go get a job you should have therefore put my money to the exchanges and to my coming i should have received my own with usury now take the talent from him and give it to him which had ten talents everybody said that's not fair but that's biblical okay and so what we see then now we understand what god's attention is on what we do with what he considers valuable and what i have found is some things that i consider valuable he doesn't consider near as valuable the word reckless there in accountability is the uh it means to give an account or to have a reckoning and so uh when we say we're going to give an account for something that matters to god we're saying we're going to give an account for what god has allowed us to be stewards over they people belong to the lord we don't save them to us we bring them to him and so we understand now i understand okay every guest that comes to our church is a gift from god and so when i'm sitting on the platform or standing at the pulpit and i see guests walk in i get joy because i'm saying in my mind i'm saying jesus trust this church today with guests last night while we were here at back at home i walked down off the platform got a text the text said one baptized four holy ghost tonight in jesus name to god be the glory why because there were guests there that needed the holy ghost and so it is once it gets started and once we understand it is a it is a a cycle that never stops because we continually we build this into the culture as a church new church plant you can build this into the culture of your church by taking them with you when when you go to talk to people about the lord and that's why that altar for the priest is so important because i've got to know that god is with me and if god is with me who can be against me so we're going to go for it we're we're going to go reach people and i'm going to teach them and so when you build that into your culture you then design the the church we were able to design our our church building and we designed it to fit our culture we want the guests to know that they are they are other than jesus christ they're the most important entity of that church because just a simple revelation but you we cannot grow a church without guests that's called stealing is that okay if your church grows and you don't baptize souls and they're not filled with the holy ghost you're thank you i'm glad you're here now i'm not saying jesus won't send people to assist you he will we can bear witness of that but he didn't send us people right off the bat you say well you came out of tom foster's other daughter you're right but you want to know how many people our pastor sent us to today zero and he's probably watching so thank you bishop but it what it taught me is here's what here's what it taught me but dylan i get hungry i like to eat and one day in prayer at that look at that little building i said hmm lord there's not many people here and i'm kind of getting hungry and i realized if i want to eat i'm gonna have to win some souls and so we started we started every week we we're out winning souls and inviting people to church and so it is that is that important that we come to this revelation and understanding of how important these guests are because they matter to god they should matter to us so we're challenged to understand the value that god places on people think about this jesus died for who everyone and so every time i drive past somebody we look at somebody that is somebody that jesus died for and so this is in my mind that everybody's a candidate for the holy ghost everybody's a candidate for repentance everybody's a candidate for jesus name baptism and what gives us a new perspective of looking at people because that's what jesus wants him to do is receive this apostolic doctrine and guess what we're the ones that are going to tell them and so when we get this courage when we get this confidence when we get this faith to speak this and when it starts begins to happen people get happy there's joy in the house and joy overrides fear joy overrides doubt joy overrides problems joy overrides trouble and so you can create an atmosphere of revival in the church if there's 30 if there's 40 if there's 60 if there's two 200 if there's a hundred or if there's 500. never stops and so when we understand the value that jesus places on people he places much greater value on people than he does on buildings and we need them on land and on money in the bank we've got a building we've got land and we've got a few coins in the bank but most importantly this year already i think we're at 587 first-time guests this year so far there's only been one year since 2009 that we haven't had over 1 000 first-time guests and that was last year now we consider a guest a baby this big or a 83 year old man that gets baptized so that's a guest because pastor foster taught us that every child grows into a teenager and every teenager goes into an adult and every adult grows into a parent and every parent grows into a grandparent and so that's why the lord gave us this system and i use that word very lightly because i know it's used a lot but it really is a system called every guest counts and it usually takes us we have been so blessed and privileged to be invited to teach it on a couple occasions and it's usually about three sessions of an hour and a half to two hours and but i'm going to try to put a little bit of that in just a few minutes i have left here and so what's so important is is that we understand why jesus says every guest counts because those are his talents those are what he says i'm going to give to you and so we wrote uh we designed wrote built this system it is very intricate it is very detailed you will need a people management system i say that right people management system we use realm i used to use servant keeper used to use excel used to use acs and so you just got to figure out what fits big but because i i like the details and so i ask for reports that create opportunities and just so happens god has blessed me with the help mate that can create those reports because it matters i want to know what's i want to know who's coming to our church i want to know who's i want to know who's who's interested in coming to the pentecostal i will tell you this also this year 85 of our first time guests tell us we've been watching you online for two or three months and you know what for years just this year just this year we were able to add more than that one straight camera sometimes you're thankful that's all you got that one straight camera is not always a curse so that's all you can afford go with it get the best one you can get and just keep it right there on the pulpit you'll be safe okay but people want to know what's what's attracting them they're hearing the message okay and so when those guests come uh whether it's via the uh stream or we we have been blessed we have built a community of people that do outreach every week every saturday we have at least 15 people on outreach we've had as many as 130 we do detailed events once a quarter when i say detailed outreach last saturday we had a block party we had 204 people at a block party 114 people we'd never met they got to find a church we had music we had our children's ministry did a ministry to the children we had one child receive the holy ghost right there in 100 degree weather and we fed 4 over 400 hot dogs we gave away 8 boxes of food 40 in value and we gave away 2 table full of clothes just going to the community and so we do that once a quarter what does that do it just lets people know we care about them and so when they're looking for a church when they get bad news when they need prayer guess what they've been a there's been a church there so we've done weekly door hangers i could testify up until last march or april that we had not missed one saturday since before our church began of doing outreach and when i say outreach we go to the community every week we have door hangers printed up professionally and we just simply hang door hangers on a door this is a great opportunity ministry opportunity for brand new people in the church but the foster taught us if you can get when somebody comes to the church they need two things immediately they need a friend and they need a job and that's what this system we built it on we want to get them to work as soon as possible we have a ministry opportunity booklet it is when they come to the church and they make a commitment that we're going to make this our church we show them what they can do we it's it's just a neat concept and people are excited to call it their church i just got a text last night uh rocky one of the guys just recently received the holy ghost he's committed to drive the van so all we got to do is check his driving record make sure it's all good and rocky is going to drive the van yeah you were there brother and so uh thank god for that that's how it works it's just it's it's once a process begins and the church catches on so we do community events we do these drop cards they're available for the whole church they're easy to print up simple to design uh we do community events and then we do the online services so once the guest comes to the church that we want them to feel like they are the most important person on the property obviously other than jesus we know that but we want them we want everybody we teach our staff to smile we ask them to can't make them but we ask them to uh before covered we shake their hand now we bump elbows or fist bump whatever they're comfortable with and so we try to make sure everybody's over we introduce them to our staff the door usher well if it's a first time guest they will escort them to the welcome center so that we can gather their information everybody say information information is gold now i've read some of the uh other church growth gurus and they say people don't want to give their information they're right some of them don't but most of them do when you tell them we're going to bring a gift to your house you take them about 10 fresh baked cookies real soft and chewy they're glad they gave you their address come on and so we so we want to smile we we get their information we get their address uh we introduce ourselves we try to introduce a first-time guest to at least five people before they leave that first service the greeter in the sanctuary the us the attendance taker and so that's what the second thing that's very important that we want to build a friendly community we pray for new people we look for the unknown be the first to reach out to them we introduce ourselves to them do it with enthusiasm tell them hello my name is mike i don't tell them hello my name is pastor no my name is mike well if my mom was here my name is michael she reminded me she named me michael not mike i said okay yes ma'am listen for their name say it back to them i'm so glad you're here i'll tell you a quick quick testimony last week we were here and and we stayed at the garden inn jada is the is the night manager there night auditor and so i when i checked in real late jada was there and and she was uh sharing with me just some of her burdens and and asked me was i coming here yes i'm going here and she had a cd that somebody had given her do i know him i said no but i so i showed her a video of brother mark crowder's uh new song and she was like wow so long story short i invited her to church she came last wednesday night uh when we were here and she was filled with the holy ghost and so we give god the glory for that so jade i remembered her name j.a.d.a so i go home to fort worth and brother tingley's coming and so i go to our hampton inn right there down from our church and you know who's behind the desk jada jada i said jada can i tell you a quick story she said yes sir i said i was just in madison mississippi and invited jada to church and she went to church and she received the holy ghost she said really she said well do you have a church here i said yes i pastored the pentecostal fort worth she said where is it at i said right over on west point she said no west point i said yeah west point and she said well i live on west point she lives two blocks away from our church i said well can you give me your can you give me your phone number so we can make sure right there max and jada avery and ava best they live two blocks from the church guess who i'm calling saturday [Music] why because it becomes a culture once it becomes a culture you can talk to anybody about jesus and that's what we overcome so we try to create that culture in the church and it begins with us when we built willing to make friends we we have a designated place that the guests go to get their information because if we don't have their information we can never follow up on them if jesus expects me to be accountable for them i've got to follow up on them get to that in just a second so the guest information is so important uh you can get as detailed as you want or as simple as you want uh name address uh email we try to get as much as they will they will share with us without being interrogating and so uh this this means this is our only means of connection and so that's that's that is our only way to be accountable to jesus for the talents or the people that he sends to the church we're accountable to god for the the people that come through the doors and no man comes to god the bible says except the lord draws them that's why i believe that that parable is so important to us to understand that he gave them he gives us these talents if he is drawing men people there then we need to take responsibility to make them feel like they belong there this past sunday morning what happened about two weeks ago a young man we've been working with he's came to church and he brought his his significant other's girlfriend and uh they come to me pastor pastor don't don't don't forget there's there's a dog in the church i said okay he said it won't it won't bark it it won't they won't they're holding it they won't put it down you know i i still i'm still like so the dog's in the church well guess what the lady comes to the altar lifts her hands receives the holy ghost and the guy standing behind her holding the dog and i'm at the altar praying with somebody else and i look over and i see this and i'm like oh my god well he came back this past sunday sunday morning with the dog so we're working on it we can't we haven't been able to discern the bark yet and so and so you know sometimes we just have to do things that are uncomfortable i haven't found a scripture that says don't let dogs come into church yet there is one maybe somebody can help me but i don't want i want that guy to know if you need that dog for a couple of times go ahead but we're going to teach you about the power of jesus christ and you'll get delivered in jesus name uh the next thing we do is take attendance we take attendance in every service because we want to know who is there every service so we take attendance in every service we know how many times a week every individual comes to church we know who's there each time and because that's important because to give an account i mean if you're running a checkbook you better know where every transaction goes right okay get that in a minute uh meet and greet we try to take a moment in the service to have the church family i teach this in leadership class i teach this in ministry class i teach this when we're not having regular church that is the it's the leadership responsibility to go to the guests that's why i call their name and wave at them so that everybody knows where they are then the leadership goes to introduce themselves to them instead of have their regular fellowship meeting and so we call their names so that more people can introduce themselves to the guests why because jesus is trusting the pentecostals with these guests and then we invite them to an end to what we call it the impact room it's a reception after the service we give them a gift a bag of something that has a church logo on it a glasses cleaner something coffee cup something that they can take home a pen to remember us and brochure about events in the church uh post and so upcoming events we want them to know that they matter and that they're worth a simple little gift that they can remember us by and then from there their address is so important because their data goes into our database and then then the process begins we start with the guest follow-up we follow up on every first-time guest four times four times whether they ever come back or not they get the first the first week they get as i said fresh baked cookies soft cookies that's one job that we have never delegated in almost 19 years well we tried it one time but they felt like they came back as dog biscuits seemed like we want soft chewy cookies they're the best they're the best okay so sister wat bakes the best soft chewy cookies in the world we do them we got two ovens they which she bakes probably 20 dozen at a time and then we we share them so we tell them we bring them a gift we sweeten we sweeten the measure so guests follow up they go into the process then they get this first visit and then their uh name they go into the system of a 90-day system for each they get one more visit each uh each every 30 days they get another vision what we have found is that sometimes people come out of invitation but not need and then when we make that visit 30 days later they've got a crisis and all of a sudden here's the here's the church showing up on their door because we have their information and we know their name we know who invited them and so we say hey how are you doing is there something we can pray with you about oh yes there sure is and then they show up the next day and so this this is a great system uh to follow up on them and it gives us the opportunity to be accountable to god for the for the talent so so we do this system so we take them something a little packet um i'm gonna forget the names of them something blue help me out we're very creative sister watcher yeah jolly ranchers little bag of jolly ranchers with a tag on it says be jolly to see you again starburst bursting with excitement to see you again just yeah the little refresh little drink packs refreshing to see you again and so we have we we take something different every every time we go so every time we come we're bringing a gift to them a couple of times we we had an event and i we pulled up for the second visit and the guy met me on the driveway said i already have a church keep your stuff yes sir thank you for coming god bless you it's okay it's okay it's going to happen guess what people are going to leave the church too it's going to happen and so that's why it's so important so the guest follow-up that process we do it 40 days and if they don't respond with in 90 days if they don't respond those 90 days we put them into a email list so that they get an email invitation to revival because we never know they never know when they're going to need a church and so creating this culture of evangelism is so important uh for us to to grow the church because again we can't grow a church without guests a church won't grow if we don't meet new people and so that's that's the important thing for to build that culture into your ministry at the beginning um and so repeat guests when they come back again we want to also identify them because sometimes it's a few weeks sometimes they come right back we the second time guests they receive a special revisit box it's a box of goodies it includes everything blue to say thank you uh for returning to worship with the pentecostal fort worth as a church business card it has blue items uh the little package of blue flip pretzels that are you know those sweet ones many almond joy bar that's blue dove chocolate bar that's blue cool ranch doritos that are blue many chips ahoy that are blue mentos that are blue cookies and cream hugs that are blue and we have these little peel logo peeled pentecostal with flashlights that are blue and we put it in there so we take them this box say thank you for coming back we want you to come again so at the end of the 90 days if they do not make a commitment then we agree okay that's fine we're you know where we're at we know where you're at if we can ever uh be of a service to you we're here and then if they have an altar experience they go into a total different process we call it operation impact we follow up with them we we make sure they have a friend and we make sure they are invited every week we make sure i get a report every week of where they are and what's going on their lives so it's so important and so i want to in closing i want to i want to just mention something that i know uh it's a it's a term that's used and i just want to i guess share with what i learned about it i've heard sessions like that how do we close the back door somebody asked me that i said okay close the back door so my first thing is i go i go to go to my mac and i type in close the back door okay well it's not in the bible so i said okay so back door back door back to where would be the back door back door back down so my mind from teaching bible study i go to the layout of the tabernacle ain't no back door thank you yeah i couldn't find the back door i said well how are we going to close something that doesn't exist and people are getting frustrated because they can't close something that doesn't exist you can't find it you can't close it i mean let's be practical here so what what is what is the plan i believe the plan is if you keep people coming in that front door there's no need for the back door because the process takes place if we get them involved in the front door there's no back door to close now i know that's that's challenging all of our concept because it challenged mine i'm like that can't be but it's not in the bible so what is god's plan there was no back door his intent is that we put them give them a job put them in worship put them in serving put them in cleaning put them in the altar put them at the altar and so we keep the front door open we keep the flow coming in the front door and the back door this is not even it's not even a question does that mean people aren't going to leave absolutely not that doesn't mean that jesus lost judas hello but what it does mean is that we're more focused on that front door and people coming in and so that's our focus as a church seeking and saving that which was lost we're reaching for the community we're reaching for the laws and therefore we're always building people up we're inviting people encouraging people and training them for the kingdom of god and so that's what we believe to be the purpose of the front door to keep people coming in it's so important today that we keep people coming if you're standing with me in closing i want to share this maybe you've heard this seen this just a simple little lesson illustration a man went to church he forgot to switch off his phone ring in the church accidentally during prayer the pastor scolded him worshipers admonished him after prayers for interrupting the service his wife kept on lecturing him on his carelessness all the way home one could see the shame embarrassment and humiliation on his face after all this he never stepped foot in the church again that same evening he went to a bar he was still nervous and trembling he spilled his drink on the table by accident the waiter apologized and gave him a napkin to clean himself the janitor mopped the floor the manager offered him a complimentary drink she gave him a huge hug and a pec while saying don't worry man who doesn't make mistakes he's not stopped going to that bar since then the lesson is this sometimes our attitude as believers drive souls away from god we can make a difference today by how we treat people especially when they make mistakes maybe jesus is laying somebody on your heart right now maybe you're remembering a guest that came that you could have given a little more attention to you could have addressed a little more intimately why don't we lift our hands right now and ask jesus to talk to our hearts about what matters to him people matter to him more than our accolades our properties [Music] our accomplishments god let us have the burden you have for people [Music] jesus let us have the love you have for people and lord as you choose to add to your kingdom let it be this group let it be this assembly that you choose to grow your kingdom we ask it in jesus name [Music] would you love jesus would you clap your hands lift your voice because he is worthy i bless you jesus i love you jesus [Music] i want to tell this great assembly i do stand convicted i stand convicted because of guests that i have not been as diligent about following up with let me say this because i i feel this in my spirit when i hear the and i i'm encouraging you to get mike watts his cell phone number and follow up with him now i know all of our personalities are different but if you're going to build a church you better have some kind of process to follow up with guests because if god is going to draw them to your building and you just ah that's just well miss that one god's gonna look at you and say why don't you care more why don't you show more empathy for the fact that i'm bringing people to you do something with these precious people follow up with them establish some kind of a process where you can track and where you can make sure you follow up with them because that is so important and i don't say this from a position of perfection i stand convicted but by god's grace i've already spoken brother watts i'm gonna have him come in and teach this to our church to our team have him preach and literally breathe this into our people so that we can we can build the church of god it is the will of god and i'm going to tell you building a church is not glamorous and you know this i told this to someone recently i said it's just plain hard work i said it just plain day in and day out meeting calling bible studies but oh god when you see them in an altar getting the holy ghost it's worth every effort every ounce of effort [Music] hallelujah my god it's worth it i bless you amen i am so thankful amen that god is connected amen great men we're going to have brother chester write in just a few moments amen if you need to take a break to run to the restroom amen i bless you amen we're just again stay in this atmosphere for in about five minutes at 11 o'clock amen he is going to be coming up here i bless you in the name of jesus and we're going to enter into a depth of the spirit in jesus name hallelujah praise god dominion and power to the one god who saves you rain victoriously full of strength and authority he alone never changes you are forever my king put those hands together if you believe it tonight here we go [Music] i put my trust in you alone and you'll never fill me you're the only one in control [Music] full of strength [Music] [Music] are you ready [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] yay [Music] one more time [Music] to the one who sits on the throne [Music] oh [Music] sing it again set [Applause] one two one two three jump [Music] [Applause] [Music] somebody [Music] [Music] i was lost then you found me i was broken and confused but your love is all around me and your mercy it pursues and it was grace that pulled me from the grave [Music] it's your blood that washed my sins away it's your amazing [Music] amazing love jesus you have saved me with your amazing love it's your amazing grace your amazing grace jesus you forgave me with your amazing grace i was lost

Channel: ParkwayChurchMadison

Views: 712

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Parkway, Church, Apostolic, Conference, Dillon, Jerry Dillon, Missionary, Jesus, God, Lord, Pray, Prayer, Holy Ghost, Baptism

Id: -5AQ1UoNSoc

Length: 85min 35sec (5135 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021