 Have you noticed that modern day apostles have an awful lot of power or at least they think an awful lot about themselves? Wherever I go, God rules. When I walk on White House grounds, God walks on White House grounds. When I walked in the river, God walked in the river. When I go into the dry cleaner, that dry cleaning place becomes holy. I had every right and authority to declare the White House as holy ground because I was standing there and where I stand is holy. There's one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars for one star. One star differs from another star in glory. That's right. And that's the way it is among ministers. Greater work than these shall we do. Because I did more work than the son of God. Don't give a freak what they think. I want you to hear me pastor, you leader. I don't care if you're a 5-4 ministry officer. You don't carry the weight I carry. I was given it by Jesus Christ personally, by God. I'm not making enough. I have proof. You haven't turned that one water into blood. You haven't done nothing I've done. I have come on the scene and proven that I have the mantle and seat of Moses. I am the inaugurated authority chief apostle of this generation. Darn if I'm going to let some flusy pastors downgrade this glory, all of them need to be submitting to me. I don't need to submit to them. I'm the one who have God on earth physically working with me. They need to submit. I'm causing it to be activated in your life, even as it comes on your tongue and you speak it by faith. I declare the spirit of fear to get out. I deliver you, I free you. In a generic sense, anybody can be an apostle. Now, let me clarify this, though. In a generic sense, anyone can be an apostle because the term apostle just means someone who is sent. And so Jesus is called an apostle, apostle of God. By the way, he uses that exact same word, either as a noun or as a verb in describing who Jesus was sent by, that sent by the father or that he was God's apostle. Also, a person generically can be an apostle, let's say, in the case of a Barnabas or in the case of a James, who was an apostle of the early church sent by the church. As a matter of fact, Paul was also sent by the church. And so Paul served also as an apostle of the church. However, we're gonna see that Paul was also even more to the point an apostle of Christ. And when we talk about an apostle, I can send my wife to the store. Technically, since I sent her, she's an apostle. Someone can send me to the hardware store. Technically, whoever sends me, I'm their apostle. But it's not as though I'm claiming that as a title or as an office. What type of an apostle you are depends upon who sent you. The problem is, in those days, the term apostle was not necessarily seen as a glorified office. Today it is because we look and see who the apostles were and we appreciate what they've done. But today, people go and grab that title as a badge of honor. We need to understand something that in many cases, this title, this office, this placement, in most cases was a death sentence. And I don't think that most modern day apostles appreciate that. You don't see modern day apostles willing to put their necks on the line because isn't it interesting that we see modern day apostles in the cozy confines of an air conditioned church or somewhere in Western civilization? How many apostles can you name that are in Afghanistan? How many apostles can you name in, oh, I don't know, Iraq? How many apostles can you name in Yemen? How many apostles can you name in Northern Nigeria? How many apostles can you name in Indonesia? It'd be kind of difficult, right? How many apostles are we seeing in Syria? There's a reason for that. Why? Because someone is gonna find out for sure, really quickly if you are sent or if you are not. And so I wanna make it clear, generically the term apostle depends upon who you're speaking of. Anyone can be an apostle, but we're not speaking in a generic sense. We're speaking of those who happen to be apostles of Christ. Let's go to the pastor that's always brought up and let's glean some things from that and then let's go ahead and jump into our study. In Ephesians chapter four, verse 11, Bible says that he got, gave some as the apostles, to some man apostles, which is indeed he gave some or he definitely gave some as apostles and some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastor teachers. And this word pastor, we find is the word, point menace, which is, oh, I'm sorry, point menace, which is a shepherd, same term as a pastor, where we get the term pastor. And so we see four offices, not five, not five guys, four offices. We see the office of apostle. We see the office of prophet functioning in that role. We see those that function as evangelists and then we see those that function as point menace, the docalus, which is shepherding teachers. Are you with me? Shepherds who teach, those are the four, not five, four. The question is, when we see this, do we take this as God is perpetually giving people to function in this particular role set by him, those that God gave, not that the church gave, not that someone else gave, but that God gave. Now, nowadays you see more and more people who are functioning as the person who is ordaining people. People have gotten to the point where they think even so highly of themselves that they're even willing to ordain someone else as apostle, and so you can be apostle of this person and apostle of that person. But is that absolutely biblical? As a matter of fact, do we see a biblical model for this or do we see a biblical model for this video clip right here? You're watching online, but we'll be seeing what has never been done before the history of this city. These are the first apostles being recognized to the Apostolic office in this city ever since it's settled. And I'm about to go to the house. Oh, goodness. As I pour this oil over your head, you will transition from pastor to apostle. Now, we'll go back to it, but do we see them having to have their head anointed with oil? This becomes really ceremonial to kind of add something to what you'll have in music playing and so forth, but we don't see the apostles being called in this regard and you're going from pastor to prophet. So if we go back to chapter four, verse 11, well, that's one of the four offices. And so we see that according to how Pagani is doing it, someone will go from this fourth one pastor or Permanas shepherd from there to apostle. Well, we're going to find out something interesting about the apostles, as well as is this a perpetual giving that was done? Yes. Put it right there. Look at that oil. Socorreba ne me conterebe. And as a self-appointed apostle, you should know better that if he's going to speak in tongues, we should know what he's saying so we can say, man, where's interpretation? Forget about what we've said in the past about tongues, but even still, if someone were to disagree, that still couldn't be what tongues are, but it adds more to the ceremony. Let's go back to this passage in Ephesians 4, 11, and let's answer a question. The question is going to be, if God is no longer giving apostles, well, what about the other offices that are written here? We see apostles and prophets. We see evangelists and we see pastor and teacher or shepherd teacher. So the question is, one, why is God giving? We always ask this question, when we see something in the Bible, the question needs to be, why exactly is God doing whatever he's doing? Why do we have certain spiritual gifts? Why do we have certain positions? Why do we have this? Why do we have that? God just doesn't do things haphazardly just because he's got time to kill. No, go back to it. He's given, and notice the chronology that he's given. He's given, first, he's given these apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastor-teacher. And there's a reason for that particular order. First of all, we're going to find out, and we'll look at the passage in just a second, that the prophets after the apostles are the foundation of the church. We'll talk about that in a second, but what don't we have, again, I've covered this before, what don't we have at this point in time at the beginning of a church? What's missing from all of these new believers or if someone has been a Christian for, in this case, 10, 12 years, what's missing? As a matter of fact, this is somewhere around 20 years after Christ's death, close to 30. So what's missing in the foundation of the church? Well, I'll tell you what's something glaring, a Bible. They don't have a Bible. They don't have all of the Word of God. They don't have from Genesis to Revelation. So what will they function as? Well, think about these roles. The apostle, these are the ones that are obviously they're laying hands on and they're giving validity to these folks who are one at the founding of the church. And then they're also being, at least in the first 11 cases, we're actually the first 12th case, they are apostles to the Jews. Then we see Paul is gonna be called as an apostle to the Gentiles. And then Paul's gonna have help as well sent out by the church. And so it's not like that any of them, matter of fact, none of the 12 apostles are out there doing it on their own either. But we've got these apostles who are being inspired and empowered, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Why? To give validity to what is being said, these signs and wonders. And these signs and wonders, the fame of these signs and wonders are going all throughout the community, all throughout the land. And so people are hearing about it. Now you gotta remember, these are times where people didn't just say things like they did today. Today you say anything and folks will, yeah, whatever, I don't believe you. But then word would travel as a matter of fact, not just by one person, it would be just an onslaught of what's happening. Think back to the children of Israel, what God did with His mighty hand in bringing the children of Israel and all of the people, all of the other nations heard about it. Think about why Rahab decided that she wanted to help the Jews because she heard of all of the things that God has done through them. And so the word of God's power is going out. Remember, every time that God showed His mighty, powerful hand, every time that He did so, people knew about it. Believers and non-believers. And most importantly, for the non-believers so that it would get validity to their being a God. You couldn't say after seeing or hearing about it that there is no God. Remember what Nicodemus said to Jesus, teacher, master, rabbi, we know that you have come from God because no one can do the things that you've done unless they be sent by God. So think about that for a second. The reason why we've got these apostles is they are going to give validity to the power of God. You've got these prophets. The prophets, not the foretelling, but the fourth, F-O-R-T-H, giving the indicative of what has happened. Explain to people, given a revelation by God, again, they don't have a Bible. They can't say, listen, in Galatians chapter two or over here in Matthew chapter four, they couldn't do that. All they could go off of is a revelation by God. In this case, spirit field, revelation by God to give these people to understand what has happened because we only had so many apostles. We had a lot more prophets. And at this point in time, you could have those who were, who would have this gifting, not the office, but the gifting of this in men and women. Now, this here, we've got God granting people, giving people the ability to give a revelation of the word of God. Not if they're giving future telling, hey, in five years or five weeks, or if you so will see, then God will do this. That's not the kind of prophet that we're talking about. We have seen this prophet or this term sullied today, and it gives us a bad view of how prophets were in those days. The prophets we see today are nothing like the prophets that were there in the past. Similarly, the apostles. Going further, if we look at the evangelists, the evangelists, people that are just going around and sharing the gospel, spreading the good news. That's why Paul on his deathbed tells us to do the work of an evangelist. As a matter of fact, what you're gonna notice different from the first two, from the last two, is that the second, the last two are repeated. The first two after this, we don't see any new apostles. We don't see God bringing on any new apostles. However, we, and so we can't say that it's a perpetual giving. As a matter of fact, looking at the word, is Edokan, this is in the heiress tense, meaning it was a past tense that God gave to them for this reason. But we don't know. You could say, you could say, well, what about again, evangelist, pastor, teachers? Well, we know he didn't just give them singularly because we see them being brought up again later on in scripture, in other parts of scriptures. So that part is understood. There's always been a need for evangelists and always will be need. There always will be a need for shepherds. As a matter of fact, there is an office with qualifications given for this particular office. So we know that those two weren't done away with. These first two, we see no more call for there to be any more of them. There's no more new apostles that are spoken of, since we're talking about apostles, there are no more new apostles spoken of in the Bible. So the question is going to be, how does a person become a Bible? I mean, become a Bible. Become an apostle. Well, let's listen to a couple of people tell us how they became apostles, and then we'll go and look at the scriptures. Wasn't the last one? No. Hallelujah. Glory to God. I know. No. You want to know how I became one? God appeared unto me. Amen. Hallelujah. God did. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I said, God Almighty appeared unto me. Amen. And spoke to me like you did, brother Paul. Now, before I go to the next lady, he says that Paul wasn't the last one. I want to pull this passage up before I go to how God appoints. Paul makes a statement. Now remember, we've got the first 12, and then Paul, who was called, but look what he says. Look what he says. By the way, someone might want to say that James was an apostle, or someone might want to say that someone else was an apostle. No, James is not an apostle, but here's the passage where some folks might think that he's an apostle, but you'll see the differentiation between James and the apostle. Let's go to 1st Corinthians 15 verse 6. After he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep, he then appeared to James, that is his brother, James. Remember James, James was one of the guys who know that my brother Jesus, come on, let's go get Jesus. Jesus is over here tripping. Let's go remember, they show up to get Jesus, but Jesus, get away. That James, who did not believe that Jesus was actually who he was, but if your brother says he's a Messiah, he dies and comes back, now you're a believer. Now you're a believer. So that James, then the distinction between James and the apostles, then to the apostles, to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born as himself, he appeared to me also, for I am the least of the apostles. And the word that's used here is, excuse me, a la kikstas, which is to say the least or very small and significant, and it's referring to his order and not fit to be called a apostle because I persecuted the church. So Paul is saying to himself, he has seemed to be indicating that there is none to come after him. And the reason why we could probably understand to be the case that there's none after him, or by the way, can also be translated as the last of all, is that there are no other apostles after Paul. We never see of another apostle after him. So let's go back to, we just heard Gino tell us how he became an apostle. He said that God appeared to him. Okay, we're gonna test that. We're gonna test that. And then let's hear Ms. Crick how she became an apostle. I surrendered to Jesus January 7th of 2016. The day I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and two months after I first encountered the power of God. Nine months later, I went to this conference, this prophetic conference where there was going to be a different prophet ministering at this conference. And I was amazed at the way that the power of God was moving at this conference. And I was very convicted. This is a true prophet of God. God is really here. The kingdom of God is really here. And then this prophet prophesied to me that I was called to be an apostle. Now, I don't know if you caught that, but did you hear how soon after receiving the Holy Spirit, she was called to be an apostle? Nine months, nine months. Now, Paul tells, who we know is an actual apostle, tells Timothy to lay hold of no one too soon. He also gives us qualification that they must not be recent convert or read. Now, according to her own testimony, she's pretty recent. So even her own testimony kind of nullifies it, but let's just deal with the text. Matter of fact, let's go back because I see someone saying that what about Paul being the least or the last? Notice what he says, he says he is the, and he gives, there's a definite article attached to if I'm the least or you can say the least or the last is the same word of tone, apostle on. So tone, apostle of the apostles, meaning he's speaking about a definite group, guys. He's not speaking about some group that's gonna last in perpetuity. Are you with me? Let's continue though. Let's go now to the qualifications. These seem to be the qualifications. We didn't come up with these qualifications. It seems to be that there's already qualifications given by heaven or by the one who's actually sending them. That would be Jesus. Look what he says, chapter one of verse 20 in Acts. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, Acts 120. He says, Ford has written in the book of Psalms, let his homestead be made desolate, speaking of Judas, and let no one dwell in it and let another man take his office. Therefore, look what he says, it is necessary. Day un, which is, it is necessary. Day un, it is necessary. This must be the case. Necessary that one of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection. A witness of his resurrection. So what must they have witnessed? Not necessarily the resurrection, the moment that he got up, why? Because no one witnessed that. No one saw that. The angels did, but that's it. Not even the women of the tomb. They didn't see that. Witness of his resurrection, the fact that they seem like Paul spoke of, when he says he's the least or the last of them, Paul says that over 500 have seen him. So it's gotta be somebody that has witnessed him after the resurrection. So one thing you have to, one qualification is, you must have seen Christ after the resurrection, not in some vision, witnessed the physical Christ, his resurrection. They saw him. Someone else is gonna witness him as well. It's gonna have an actual physical encounter with Christ, the resurrected Christ. And so he says this, that you must have witnessed the resurrected Christ. Paul makes the same statement. If anyone says that Paul didn't see the resurrected Christ, well then Paul's a liar, because here in First Corinthians nine, Paul is defending his apostleship, which tells us something also. Paul is defending his apostleship. Shouldn't you? Shouldn't you know, or Catherine, or anyone else, if you call yourself apostle, you need to be ready to defend your apostleship. Paul does so. And the reason why Paul is made to do so, because his apostleship, his calling was different than the first 12. So what he says, he says, am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Am I not an apostle? Well, obviously the question is, he is, he says, am I apostle, so not am I apostle? So because the negative is inferred, I mean, is here, then the obvious answer that must be inferred is a yes. It's a question. Are you trying to tell me am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you with me? He has seen him. Are you not my work in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, meaning he's not an apostle to the Jews, but I certainly am to you. At least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. Are you with me? So you have to have had an eyewitness. Someone says, you don't have to witness Jesus to be an apostle. You have to be sent by God. Well, then James, can you explain me what we just read? Please explain to me, sir, what we just read. We literally just read it. We put it back on the screen. Let's matter of fact, let's go back to Acts 1. Acts 1, 22. Therefore it is necessary. Look what he says. Look what he says, James. He says it is necessary. It's a qualification. This has to happen. Has to be someone who has accompanied us all through the time that Jesus, the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us. One of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection. Witness of what? A witness of his resurrection. You and I don't qualify for that, James. No one else that you know of also qualifies for that. You must have been a witness of his resurrection. I'm not trying to be... What happens is when you say something like that, now you're being a little bit loose with the text. The words were given for a reason. We cannot take the words because our favorite teacher calls himself apostle so-and-so, or because we wanna be a part of this so-called five-fold ministry, which by the way is wrong. But now, if you notice something, matter of fact, I think I don't have that clip. Do I have that clip? No, I don't have that clip. One of the things that Catherine Crick brings up and others bring up about how God is re-establishing the five-fold ministry and the apostolic realm and so forth, which would imply that something stopped. We'll come to that in just a little bit, but if you are going to be an apostle, you must have seen the resurrected Christ. Not see the resurrection, but have seen Christ after the resurrection. All of the ones that we're talking about have. None of the ones that some of you guys might wanna believe have. Geno has not. Catherine, I don't care what sort of vibrant program you are. I don't care what kind of physical regiment you're on, what kind of health kit you're on. You have not lived. I know there's been advances in health, but not so much so that we've got someone that's lived 2,000 plus years. We don't have that. So that's one of the other qualifications. What other qualifications might we see? Well, one of the qualifications they have to be part of this found, the apostles are a foundation of the church. Now, we don't have to even know anything about building. We know the foundation is. And so the Bible says that these apostles, says a church speaking about the church. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. This household, we said in verse 20, having been built on the foundation of the apostles, I'm gonna come back to you James. I make them of the apostles and prophets, Christ is himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being tipped together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. So the foundation of this church is who? The apostles. You can't come back 1,000 years, 2,000 years later and make yourself out to be a foundation of the church. First of all, that is the height of arrogance. James, I don't know if you're listening or not or anyone else to come back and make yourself out to be the foundation of the church that's literally what the prophets are. I mean, the apostles are bed make. I am one of the foundations of the church. It would be pretty arrogant for me to say I'm one of the pillars of the church. No, I'm coming back and saying I'm one of the foundations of the church. No, you're not, you're not. You're not even one of the early prophets of the church. Why? Because no one was listening to you give a revelation of God at the beginning of the church. We are speaking of the beginning of the church. You are not a foundation. If you call yourself an apostle, you are not a foundation of the church. You just can't get around that. You can believe they exist, but you can't believe billedly. You can believe whatever you want to believe. You are allowed to believe what you want to believe. You are allowed to feel and think what you want to believe. None of that matters. You can think that Jesus did not die for your sin. You can think that Jesus didn't go on a cross. You can think that Jesus was a fictional character. Doesn't matter. You can believe that there is no God. It does not matter. You can believe the earth is flat. It does not matter. You can believe what you want to believe. The facts are the facts. And to believe that a person today qualifies as an apostle according to who? The question is, who sent them? One, two, who are they apostles to? Did you happen to notice anyone else that the apostles went out into the fields and went to people who are unchurched, to people who did know the gospel? Did you happen to catch that? Did you happen to notice that every single apostle went out? Jesus says, you will be my witnesses in Judea, Samaria, and to the rest of the world after you receive this power. Now, interestingly enough, they kind of just chilled for a little bit until this other guy who's going to end up becoming an apostle also, Paul comes persecuting the church and the church gets scattered. They go here, here, here, and there. These apostles went out preaching the gospel to other places. So you gotta ask yourself, why is apostle Joshua Jiles or Jonathan, whatever person or whoever else, why are these apostles? Why is their address 123 Main Avenue, Sonny City, USA? Why aren't they over in these other places? Why aren't they over in Baghdad? Why aren't they over in Mogadishu? Why aren't they over in Nepal? Why aren't they over in other parts of the world sharing the gospel like apostles did? If you're gonna be an apostle, be an apostle. That's all we're saying. If you're gonna call yourself one, if you wanna be one, then be one. Be about it. What do they say? Don't just talk about it, be about it. We'll be, if you are an apostle, go out and do some apostleing. How about that? Show who sent you. Show, oh, by the way, oh, by the way, the Bible talks about these signs that accompany the apostles. Paul, giving also another defense, he says, even though he said that he's nobody, look what he says. He says the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles. So if you are an apostle, can you please demonstrate what signs that you are giving? Now, I know you say you have some signs, but you really haven't shown any signs. Are you with me? Now, I wanna point out something that they say that makes you think something. Like, wait a second, it's gonna cause you to kinda scratch your head. Listen to this. My vision has always been, Lord, here I am, send me. But also, first Corinthians chapter three says, Paul, the apostle Paul said, to establish the gospel when no one has laid a foundation. So my primary focus as the modern day apostolic person is to take the gospel to pioneer in territory that has never been pioneered. Now, listen to what he said. He says that according to first Corinthians, chapter three, verse 10 of verse nine, or 10, he says that, no, verse 10, that it is to go to a place that has never been. Let me play it again. Let me play it again. I want you all to hear it. Let me back this up a little bit. It's restoring the five-fold myth. My vision has always been, Lord, here I am, send me. But also, first Corinthians chapter three says, Paul, the apostle Paul said, to establish the gospel when no one has laid a foundation. So he says to establish the gospel where no one has laid a foundation. Now, first of all, they're not doing that. They're not going to places where the foundation has not been laid, where the gospel has been laid. But first, that would mean you gotta put a new foundation up. No, he says to go establish the gospel where no one has laid the foundation. Let's look and see. Because what you're gonna find is that oftentimes, if not every time, these modern day apostles have some bad doctrine and misunderstanding twists and scriptures. So let's go to first Corinthians chapter three. It is according to the grace of God, which was given to me like a wise master builder. I laid a foundation and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he feels on it. So no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He didn't say go and lay a new foundation or lay a foundation which no one else has laid. That's not what it says. So Pagani, you've got that wrong. So let's go to, now I wanna hear Miss Crick. Let me fast forward and get to her. So my primary focus as- What he's doing is he's restoring the axe church is what he's doing, five-fold ministry to- To pioneer, in territory that has never been pioneered. God is restoring the five-fold ministry to the body of Christ. Now, before we continue, think about what she just said. God is restoring the five-fold ministry to the body of Christ. So here it is, the 21st century. God has decided that he's gonna restore the five-fold ministry to the body of Christ. Well, what happened to the previous 2000 years? See, this is what we do. This is what we do and this is the problem that this is what wrangles me so much. And it's not just the charismatic, but it's also people in every denomination we do this. Especially, I know we've got people in other parts of the world that watch this show. Thank you, by the way, for tuning in. But you guys that are in Australia, you guys that are in the UK, you guys that are in Africa, you guys that are in the Caribbean, you guys that are in Canada, you guys in South America. If there happens to be one person, oh, you guys also that are in Asia and Europe, you guys, if there happens to be somebody who happens to be in Antarctica, what you'll notice about people in America, really Western civilization period, but especially here in America, especially here in America. We think we are really something special, don't we? We think we are really, man, we think we have a cat's meow. We think we're the greatest thing since sliced bread. We think sometimes we are so full of ourselves, God was just waiting for America to kind of get himself going and start establishing this ministry. God was waiting for us here in America. Now, I understand that you see this explosion of this foolishness also taking place in Africa as well. Again, it begs the question, why isn't it exploding in North Korea? Why isn't it exploding in, I don't know, Russia? Why isn't it exploding in China? Why isn't it exploding again in Syria, Iraq, Iran? Why? I'll tell you why. Because that foolishness that's in you will soon go away once someone starts shooting guns at you and then you won't be able to show, as Paul says, the true signs of an apostle. But she says that God is restoring. He waited, so what happened all this other time? So 2,000 years, there were no apostles. Okay, I got you, Catherine. What he's doing is he receives restoring the Axe Church is what he's doing. Like, when we read the book of Acts, all of the mighty miracles that are happening, we have to do what the Axe Church did to see the results of the Axe Church. So what we're doing is really returning to his word in the book of Acts. And when we look at the book of Acts, we find that these... Yeah, I don't know what she's doing with her arms and this and that, like she's dancing, but God is restoring that. Wait a second, is he really restoring it? And I do know somebody's bringing up the Mormon Church and the Mormon Church has a apostle. I'm not even thinking about him. I'm really not thinking about the Mormon Church and their apostles because they're not a church, they're not a Christian. But that being stated though. So what I'm asking for is what about your signs? Now, here's the thing. If a person was an actual apostle in the... Could you just... Let's go back to 33 AD or 34 AD. Think about this for a second, guys. Here it is, 33 AD or 34 AD. And here comes Corey Miner saying, I am an apostle. The Lord chose me to be sent by him. Would you welcome me with open arms? No, you would not. Remember, every single apostle was verified by another apostle and by others in the church. At that church, someone who God had spoken to, one Ananias, as a matter of fact, let's go to that. Paul himself was verified. The Bible says in Acts 9.15 says, but the Lord said to him, speaking Ananias, go for he is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the sons of the Israelites. So he's speaking about why Paul has been chosen. Paul is going to be sent by Christ to the Gentiles. Which is kind of interesting when you think about it. Here Paul is a Jew of Jew. You would think that Paul is most qualified, and he is most qualified to share the gospel with Jews. A Jew of Jew, a Pharisee of Pharisees, he is as Jewish as it gets. And God said, nope, nope. Sorry. Now, interestingly enough, the beauty of Paul's qualification helps to ward off the Judaizers as they try to come towards the Gentiles. But the 12 that are going to be the apostles of the Jews, they're not the best at Judaism. They're not the best at it. They're Jews, but they're not as cultured and as learned as Paul, they're not Pharisees. It's kind of interesting how God did that. But so Ananias is validating that. And guess what? We know for a fact that all of the other apostles validate them, the church validates. As a matter of fact, looking to see the dog text, thank you so much, I appreciate that. In 2 Peter 316, Peter speaking about Paul, let's start in verse 15, in regard patients of our Lord and salvation, just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, the wisdom that was given him by who, by God, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking of them, of these things, which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of scriptures to their own destruction. So what is he saying? He's speaking about how Paul has been empowered, but notice what he calls Paul's writings. He calls Paul's writings scriptures like the other scriptures, meaning that clearly Paul was empowered by the Holy Spirit and sent by the Lord. You wouldn't say that if I show up and say, hey, I'm an apostle, let me write some letters for you guys to follow. No, that's not happening. That's not happening. So you have other apostles, chiefly Peter, as well as other people and the church itself validating Paul. Are you with me? So none of these folks qualify. If they are to qualify, again, my question is two things. Two things, and then we'll go ahead and leave. One, it seemed to me, seemed to me, since other than John, we really don't see these people living happy lives. We don't see them, you know what? Let me get my 401k established. Let me, I think I want to move over here. It's nice and quiet over there, a little cul-de-sac. Schools are good over there, retire comfortably. That's not what the apostles were doing. Again, becoming an apostle then was virtually, if not except for John, a death sentence. Becoming an apostle was a death sentence. With John, it was just him being sent away. Thank you, Washington 83, I appreciate that. Now let's look at the passages. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 4-9, look what he says. For I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all, eschatus. So therefore, again, someone asking, are there any more? Look what Paul is saying. Paul says that we are exhibited as apostles last of all as men condemned to death. This is what Paul is saying. Here's my question for your local corner store apostle that you want to go to. Is he condemned to death? Does he think he is as he want to be? Which apostle do you know running to be killed? Paul is the one who says, for me to live as Christ to die as a gang, Paul's like, you know what? I kind of want to die because in dying, I'll go to be with him, but I'll stay here for the benefit of you. Paul is the one who says, I'm already being poured out as a drink offer. He said, but you know what? He says, my death is at hand, but guess what guys? I fought the good fight. I finished my course. I have run in such a way. And finally there's later for me a crown of righteousness. They're about to kill me. Y'all are about, they are getting ready to mess me over. I don't know what they're going to do to me. It's not going to be pretty, but I'm okay. Cause to be absent from the body, to be present with Lord for me to live as Christ, to die as gang. For me, living that benefits Christ. Dying, that's my game. I don't see, I do not see. I do not see these people. Cause it'd be one thing if these modern day prophets, well, them too as well, but these modern day apostles were servants. I'm not, see a servant in the way that one, you see what they were doing for the people, not the people here in America in the night. No, matter of fact, just, just be an apostle in Mexico. Go down, go down there. Be an apostle, I tell you what, how about we get together, get our money together and you can be our apostle to the cartel. We'll send you to Mexico, we'll send you to Medellin, we'll send you to Guatemala or El Salvador, we'll send you El Salvador, that's what we're going to send you. Could we make you an apostle to the cartels? I think not, at least from you, you won't want to do that. Why not be an apostle to, I don't know, to Al Qaeda, to a Taliban, an apostle to ISIS. Nope. Yeah, yeah, good juju, let's get it, go fund me together for these guys, but it's not going to happen, it's not going to happen. See, let's just be clear guys, it's good and easy. Now, first of all, we all should be evangelizing, it's good to go out on streets and do it, but the easiest place on the planet, let's just be clear, the easiest place on the planet to evangelize is here in America. The easiest place, there is no place easier. Now, is it as easy as it used to be? No, but it's getting worse, it's getting harder, it's getting rougher, but still the easiest place. And it's certainly the easiest place to call yourself an apostle. However, the requirements are still the same. Did you notice what the Lord is saying about the church in Revelation 2, about these apostles? He says, I know your deeds, matter of fact, let's start in verse one. To the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, to the one who walks among the seven golden lamps and that are these churches says this, I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil man. Look what he says, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles. You put to the test, like you're supposed to, those who call themselves apostles and they are not. And you found them to be false. Can anyone tell me an apostle in the Bible, a named apostle in the Bible after Paul? There are none, there are none. You would think though, if God was still trying to bring apostles in and there was a need for the apostles, there would have been some apostles after Paul. You would have even thought that the early church fathers would have mentioned it. And the reason why I'm bringing up the early church fathers or the disciples of the apostles, y'all realize the apostles, I told you these guys weren't by themselves, they had disciples. John had disciples, polycarp, Justin Martin was a disciple of, was it polycarp? But none of these early disciples of the apostles, they never spoke of any of the apostles. They could have, how easy would it have been for someone like a polycarp to call himself an apostle? How easy would it have been for someone like a Clement to call himself an apostle? Very easy. These were guys that were walking with the actual apostles. You would have thought that there would have been a natural succession, but it wasn't because that's not the way it was. Apostle, right, Robert Murray, apostle to MS-13. So when you want to be something, remember, Paul is the one who says, if any man thinks highly of himself, take heed, lest he falls. Don't think of yourself that great. Don't do so, but be so reminded. Now, if someone wants to say they're an apostle, fine, fine. If you want to be an apostle, fine. Make sure you qualify. It's not hard. You've seen the risen savior after his resurrection. Someone can validate it. There are signs that accompany you. We know for a fact that these signs accompany you. Matter of fact, you're so annoying that you can be right, scripture. And your goal, whether it happens or not, is to suffer for Christ. I don't see a lot of apostles wanting to suffer for Christ. It's not, listen, it's not a hard list. It's not, I'm sorry, it's not a long tedious list. Not a long tedious list. It's only a few, only a few requirements. That's it. Just a few requirements. If you qualify, then can you leave me something in your will? If you qualify, because you're gonna die. And likely it's gonna be a horrible death. Likely it's going to be a horrible death. No, no, no, you won't know, no, no. Won't be COVID, won't be COVID. You might catch COVID, but they're gonna hang you upside down by your toenails. Chop your thumbs off. Take your pinkies off. They're gonna do all kind of stuff to you. You're gonna die a horrible death. You're gonna die a horrible death because that's what the whole point, that's what every apostle did save John and John remains that he can give his last testimony to Christ of what the end's gonna be like. Now, we don't know what happened to John. We have no idea. He may have died of old age. He may have gotten beaten with a pool stick. Who knows? They didn't have pool back then. They didn't have pool back then, but by the way, I saw a guy get beat with a pool stick. Did not look good. He was bleeding all over the place. John in his old age would not be able to buy a pool stick beating, but he wouldn't want to. Because apostles, for them, it was a sign of servitude. It's not a badge of honor. It was a sign of servitude. We've got too many people that wanna be something special. You wanna be something special because all your life you never have been in. Now folks have packed me on the back because you found a new griff, you found a new hustle, you found a new way to come up. You found a new way to come up and the unwitting, but not smart Christians, those who don't read, those who don't listen to the word, they will follow you. But you're gonna give an account, one for you being deceived, but also for deceiving others. I pray that in between now and then, you repent. Amen.