 All right. Good morning everyone. Good morning to our students here. Good morning to those who are online as well. Right. So, before we begin, let's pray. Let's say a word of prayer and submit this hour into God's hand. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this time. We thank You, Lord, for Your Word that is alive, that's powerful, that will minister to our hearts of God. And even as we study, Lord, we pray that Holy Spirit will speak to our hearts, Lord. Everything that we learn, let it be a seed in our hearts that will bear fruit in our lives. We submit this time into Your hands. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Right. I hope the audio is fine online. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, last week, we talked about the evangelist. Right. We saw the ministry of the evangelist and how... And we also saw how Jesus led the example of being an evangelist. Right. He was empowered. He had a certain kind of audience. He had a message, message of repentance, forgiveness, the kingdom of God. Then now, we also looked at his methods. So, wherever he went, he thought, he preached, was followed by signs, wonders and miracles. And then he traveled from place to place. Well, he was motivated to do that. There were challenges. People had unbelief. There were demonic oppositions. There were people who stopped him from trying to do ministry. And we saw that he was able to overcome those obstacles. And finally, we saw that he also got support, support from people around, not just financial support, but also people just came in and began to serve alongside with Jesus. Right. So, today we look at chapter three. And chapter three is the evangelist in the early church. Right. So, we looked at the evangelist. Now, we know that the word evangelist came out only when the apostle Paul started writing. And it became more, you know, people started using it more after the apostle Paul's writing on the five-fold ministry. But the moment the church started in the book of Acts, right, when we look at the church in Jerusalem and going down chapter four, chapter five, you will see aspects of the evangelist born people and you will see aspects of evangelism in the church in the ministry. Right. What the apostle Paul did was he added a structure. Right. So, for example, if you look at the word Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, it's there from the beginning. But when the apostle Paul explains it, you know, we try to, we understand it better. Right. And even when John the disciple explains Trinity, we understand better. So, the elements are always there. You're getting what I'm saying. Right. So, the elements are always there, but the word came into being much later. Right. So, we look at the evangelist. Three Greek words before we get into what the evangelist did in the early church. So, three Greek words. Now, there are two things that we must remember. There's Greek, there's ancient Greek. Right. Now, it's very important to understand when you're studying scripture, especially the New Testament, to always go back to the Greek and the ancient Greek. Because it adds so much of value to understand. Right. So, for example, Acts 1.8. I think I mentioned this before. The original translation for Acts 1.8 is very powerful. And we all know Acts 1.8. What does it say? It's a very common verse, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and all some area. Now, when we read it, it's like, yeah, we'll be witnesses. But the Greek for the word witness is Mato. So, if you're reading the Greek translation and say, you will receive power to be a Mata. So, Mata is somebody who's willing to give his life for Christ, his or her life for Christ. So, it's very important to go back to the Greek. Go back to certain words where you can really add flavor to scripture. So, let's look at the three Greek words considered when it comes to evangelism, evangelism, evangelist. First one. Now, you don't need to be able to pronounce those words, right? But just getting the meaning of those words are very important. Again, Gileon, which is a noun, it means bearer of good tidings. Now, last semester, we did a little bit of lifestyle evangelism, but here it says a bearer of good tidings. And it is over 50 times in the New Testament, right? So, think of it this way. When you and I are ministering the gospel, we're bearers of good tidings. We are evangelists, right? Eugolizio, which is the verb, which is used 77 times in the New Testament, which means to preach the gospel, right? Now, these words were given part of the purpose of the ministry of the evangelist. Let's look at the third word. Eugolistus, okay. Thank you. The title means evangelist. Now, these words are used three times in the scriptures. Now, let's read Acts chapter 21 and verse 8. Acts 21 verse 8. Go ahead. Acts chapter 21 verse 8. Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip, the evangelist, one of the seven. Yeah. So, here is the first time Philip is being considered the evangelist, right? Now, if you look previously, now this is in Acts 21, which is just before Paul's third missionary journey. So, he's already finished first one. He's finished his second missionary journey. He comes back to Jerusalem in the same chapter. If you go down, he's come back to Jerusalem and ready for his third missionary journey. So, already he's done a lot of ministry. But this is the first time Philip is considered as an evangelist, right? But was he doing the work of an evangelist? Yes. Much way before. He probably didn't know he was an evangelist. But over time, he said, okay, they recognize the gift of the evangelist. But nowhere in the scriptures that will say, Paul the evangelist or Barnabas the evangelist. No. Why? Because again, the ministry gifts, right? The 5-4 ministry. So, God places on people certain gifts and others can recognize it, right? So, the first time is here, Acts 21. Philip has attacked the evangelist. Let's read Ephesians 4-11. It's a 5-4 ministry. Ephesians 4-11. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Yeah. Now, another thing that we can do is if you look at the book of Acts and you want to see the life of an evangelist. One, you can look at Jesus, you read about his life. And two, you look at the life of Philip, right? And you see his ministry. There was a time he was in Jerusalem in the beginning, right? He was at Jerusalem when Peter preached. From there he went into Samaria. From there he went into Judea. Then he goes into Asia Minor. So, sorry. I don't know if he went into Iconium, but he went into Asia Minor. He goes into Corinth at one time. Then we see him at another place. He goes into Africa later on, right? So, you see that his ministry is more of reaching out to people, right? Yeah. Question? No? Okay. All right. So, 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 5. 2 Timothy 4-5. Now, again, this is the last episode of the Apostle Paul, his last letter. And what does he say to Timothy? 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 5. But you be watchable in all things. In your afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Now, it's interesting, no? What is Timothy's responsibility right now? Timothy, what's he doing right now? You should know this. What is Timothy doing right now? Misjudge. Ephesus, right? So, remember, so these 2 letters are personal letters written to Timothy, who's pastoring a church in Ephesus, and he's a young man, probably 35 years old, right? And he's pastoring a church. Now, what is he saying? Be watchful. Keep your head in all situations. End your hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Why would Paul say that? Paul could have said do the work of a pastor, right? But we see that the role of an evangelist is not, like, okay, this is the only thing that I'm going to do, or the pastor. This is the only thing that I'm going to do. No. We started this session, session number 1. We said, there will be times God can intervene or interchange those gifts that we have. You can be a pastor, you can be an evangelist. Yeah, they can overlap. So, you can be an evangelist, you can be an apostle. You can be a pastor, apostle, and an evangelist, right? Now, here, Timothy is a pastor in the church in Ephesus, but he's saying, do the work of an evangelist. That means what? What did we see? The Greek word reached the gospel. Testify of good tidings. Be a bearer of good tidings, right? And so, with all of this, we see that in the early church, evangelists began to grow. There were evangelists. So, if we go on, we see Lydia became an evangelist. Paul, of course, was one Barnabas. Then we see Eiduchus, who started the church in Colossae. So, I can give you all these names. So, all these people became evangelists. Aquila and Priscilla, what were they doing? They were evangelizing, right? Then later on, they came into the church in Rome, right? So, if you see all of this, the early church functioned on the gift of the evangelist, right? Now, let's look at the disciples of Jesus. Pastor, is there any difference between these three things? Yeah. So, one is a noun. It's the name of what it means. The verb is, so the noun is the word. So, for example, our name is a noun. The verb is the meaning of our name, right? So, whatever our name is, it's our name, right? But the verb is the meaning of our name. So, here, yeah, yeah. And the third one is the title. So, if you look at it as a person, you take a person, David, right? His name is David. Anybody know what's the meaning of David? A strong refuge and a tower, right? So, David, strong, and what is this title? Mr. David or King David, right? So, it's those three in one, right? So, those three Greek words are all in one, right? Do you understand that, right? Okay. The disciples of Jesus, let's see what they did. Mark chapter 3 was 14 and 15. Mark chapter 3 was 14 and 15. Mark chapter 3 was 14 and 15. He appointed 12, he appointed 12 designating them apostles. 14 and 15. He appointed 12 designating them apostles that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. He appointed 12 designating them as apostles. And what did he tell them to do? Go out and preach. Sorry? Preach. He heard and preach, right? So, that's the mandate that he has given all of us here. To the disciples, he said, go out. He called. He said, go out and preach. Luke 9, 1 through 6. And somebody else can open Luke 10, 1. Luke chapter 9, 1 to 6. Then he called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said to them, take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money. And do not have two tunics apiece. Whatever house you enter, stay there and from there depart. And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them. So, they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Yeah. Look at verse 6. Verse 6 is interesting. So, they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere. Again, the mark of an evangelist. Go ahead. Next one. Look then. One. Yeah. After these things, the Lord appointed 70 others also and sent them 2 by 2 before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go. Verse 8. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, each of things are set before you. Verse 9. And heal the sick there and say to them, the kingdom of God has come here to you. Verse 70. Then the 70 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Verse 19. Behold, I give you the authority to tremble on serpent and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Yeah. Thank you. So, we see here a structure. First Jesus chose 12 apostles. He said, go preach. They came back and Jesus said, counted 72 others. He said, go from village to village, pray for the sick, heal them. So they went out, came back and said, you know, when we prayed, when we prayed over people, they received healing. And many who were sick had received healing. And so we see here that the Lord Jesus set the example of saying, go out. Now, in the end of his ministry, when the Lord Jesus was resurrecting, we know the Lord's commission, right? He was resurrecting. What did he tell his disciples? Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Soul. He gives them the commission, right? Now, remember that Jesus doesn't do something that he didn't do. Or he doesn't say something which he didn't do. So when we look at this, the scriptures, 12, go do what you have to do. Go to village, 72, go do what you have to do. And in both places, Jesus says, I have given you authority. He's not sending us and saying, okay, you go and I will, you know, later I will, I will see if there's any problem I will come. No. When he sends us, he gives us the authority, right? You know, sometimes when we are out in ministry, especially now, we need to be wise, right? We need to, the way we reach out, the way we talk, very important to be wise. But it must also be important to be bold, right? So last Sunday we talked about understanding God's timing, right? The Lord Jesus, there were times he boldly came out because he knew that nobody could touch him. But there were times he said, no, I need to go away. We went into Judea, we went into Sumeria. He stayed there for a while. So you and I, as disciples, as evangelists, right, are called for this to go out. Now you may be a worship leader. You may be a ushering team, sound and setup team, right? Media team, whatever team you are in, it does not matter. We are called to evangelize, to be bearers of good tidings. Now every time we do this, we are fulfilling the commission of God, right? We are fulfilling what God is telling us to do. You know, sometimes people ask me, why do you go? Now you're a pastor, you don't have to go on the streets and evangelize. You don't have to do that. I know I don't have to do that. I don't have to. I can go sit in an AC office. Your love will have been in the office. Is it comfortable? Very nice. There's AC right above me. I switch it off, I switch it on whenever I want. It's very comfortable. But that's not what God is... You know, when God puts something in our heart, it's not about comfort. It's about fulfilling something that God has put in our hearts. Fulfilling a desire to see lives transformed. Let me give you this example. Last week, we were just... I saw this couple, they were walking, and I just went and spoke to them. I said, hey, are you Christians? I said, no, we are not Christians, but we do believe in a few things. So I began to just talk to them. Now this is on the street. Was I scared? Was I nervous? Yeah, maybe. But I knew that God has said, I'll give you the power. I'll give you the authority. I'll give you the strength. So I began to speak to them and I told them, see here where we meet and send you the location. I sent them the location. To my surprise, on Sunday morning when I was preaching, I could see them. So they both have come. I was really surprised. So I was waiting to finish my sermon and just go and speak to them. But I finished the sermon, first they went and I went and spoke to them. I said, thank you for coming. Then they said, you know, the sermon about God's timing was, I think, exactly for me only. Because, you know, I'm waiting on God for this. I'm waiting on God for that. I've been praying to all the gods. Even your Jesus I've been praying to. That's what she said. Even your Jesus I've been praying for. Nothing's happening. But today I understood many things. If you pray, it doesn't mean it'll fall from heaven. So she started preaching to me. I said, preach. How much do you want to preach? Okay. So I was just listening. And she said, I'll see you next week. I said, yeah. Now, this is a family. Husband, wife, two children. They come to church. Now, over time, they will themselves become believers. You don't have to do anything. Because our church folks are there. People are there. They will minister. Right. And the word, the worship, everything will minister to. But it was just a simple thing of just going in. Okay. Right. Now, there's no point, you know, last week I was saying, you know, I want to see 150 people in church. I can't sit and sit under the AC and say that that's going to happen. I can't do that. Right. For everything that we declare, every word of faith, there should be an action. Right. And so the Lord Jesus is saying, you and I, no matter how big we become, it's okay to step out, evangelize, to reach out to people. We are bearers of good tidings. When we preach the gospel. Okay. Let's look at Philip. Each time Philip is mentioned in scripture, he is ministering in a different location. Right. Look at Acts chapter six. He's in Jerusalem. Acts chapter eight. He's in Samaria. Acts eight, 27. He's in the desert. Acts eight, 40. He's in Ozotus. Then the scripture says he preached the gospel in all the cities. Imagine Philip preached the gospel in all the cities, going all across these places, preaching the gospel. Right. No facilities. No tracks. No Bibles. No social media. Nothing. Right. All he had was the gospel. Just the words, the testimony. Right. Acts 28 was, 21 was eight finally, where Philip is called the evangelist when he's preaching in this area. Now, again, we looked at the difference between the ministry gift and the ministry function. Right. All of us have the gift. Right. All of us can blow in the gift. But there's also the function where God, for example, Philip, he had the function. The apostle Paul, did he be an evangelist? Yes. Did Peter be an evangelist? Yes. Peter, James, John, everyone were evangelists. But then there was also the function. Here, they recognized the function of Philip and said, Philip, the evangelist. The same thing when you look at apostle Paul in the book of Acts. Right. It says that, and then they called Paul, apostle Paul and Barnabas in the book of Acts. Right. After a certain while, they recognized the gifting, the function of this great man, Paul. So what does it teach us? Next, we'll go from the evangelist. We'll talk about the pastor. We'll talk about the teacher. Remember that all these gifts can overlap. But there will be times when some of us know this is our gifting. You know it. God has called you to do this. Right. So for example, I think I've mentioned to some of you, you know, God's called you for this. Right. And you know it when you look at a person that sometimes when you look at a person, you know this is pastor written all over him. Right. All over him is written pastor. Right. But it's written evangelist all over the person or worship leader. Now that is, that is, that is the function which God gives us. But it doesn't mean that we don't do other things. Right. We can also function in the other areas. An evangelist's primary function is to preach the gospel. As an exoter, he goes into existing churches to conform them and stir them up for the need of revival. Now look at current day evangelists. Right. What are they doing? They're preaching the gospel. They're having these big events. They get invited to churches. They go to churches and preach now. Here are some things that I want to address. It may not be in your notes, but these are very important things. An evangelist, his responsibility is to build the church. Right. Now anytime an evangelist comes in to a church and you, and you, if you see there is some kind of a division, now let me give you a real life instance. What happened in our city? I'm not going to name names, but it happened in our city. This pastor, he invited this great evangelist. Wonderful evangelist. He was a healing evangelist and he invited him. He preached his heart out, the evangelist. As usual, he prayed at the end of the service, signs, miracles and wonders. People were healed. All of that happened. Now what he did was at the end of the service, he started giving his card to people. People started calling him. Pastor, I got healed last week. Brother, I got healed last week. Can you pray for my sister also? Can you pray for my father? Yeah, I can pray for you. You come here to this place. I will meet you and I'll pray for you. What happened after that? From suddenly, from being in the church, their mind is not in the church on Sunday. Their mind is healing. I want healing. Now the pastor is doing all he can. He's preaching his heart. He's preparing. He did all the hard work to start the church. And in a moment, it's caused division here. So these people are in the church. But that evangelist healed. No. You don't have the gift of healing. So we want healing. Now, is this something new? No. They ran after Jesus for healing only. Right. Nothing else they wanted. They didn't say, oh, Jesus, you're the best. No. They all wanted healing. Heal, go. 5,000 people. He'll go. That's all they wanted. But here what happened was it became a big problem. It was very sad. This evangelist eventually said, okay, I'll start my own church. He started his own church. All the people from this church went to. There was hurt. There was pain. There was anger. There was division in the body of Christ. Right. All because of what? He had a God given gift. God brought healing, miracles. God used him. But he didn't use wisdom. Just gave his card, told people. Now, what happened? What about this pastor? What would he feel? Maybe for years he has worked hard. He doesn't have the gift of healing and miracles. But he's wonderful. God has called him to be a pastor, to start a church, minister to people. So two different gifts. But there was division. And our entire city, this happened about eight, 10 years back. Entire city. Everyone knew about it. Some people were saying that's his wish evangelist. He wanted to start. Let him start. Some people are saying, how can he do this? What's happened in the body of Christ? It was such a terrible thing to read about. It was very bad to read about, right? There was in one city division between people, as believers. So if God is calling us to be an evangelist, always remember, we are going there to build them up. And if there are people who, see, people will come. They like healing. They like prophecy. Even now. At times we pray and the person will be standing and looking at me. So what? Any prophetic word? I said, no word. Yeah. Go ahead. The same thing happened. Same thing happened to my dad. My dad is also a pastor. So he was talking to this particular person. So they've gotten to talk about the word and, you know, he reveals some things that they didn't know when they were going to church. So immediately he called and he said that the pastor is going to come to your church. And he said, no, no, don't do that. You go to your church. You tell your pastor about this. You see this type of thing that I learned from the Bible. You don't leave that church and come here. It's not a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. That's the right thing. We have to take all these things. See, the same thing happened to us also. Like when this literally it's 30 families went. So dad was, dad felt very bad and he was, he was sharing with a senior pastor. So he was saying like, I don't know. I didn't agree to him, but he was saying like the senior pastor. So this finally they're not going to, I mean, they're not becoming like gentiles. They're not going back. They're going somewhere to God only. So you don't have to worry because it's not your people. It's they, they came to your church because of God. So you don't have to worry. You, you, you, I mean, I mean, you worked hard for them. That doesn't mean they're not, they're not your own. Yeah. So see, when we look at God and you look at the Lord Jesus, he didn't work arbitrarily, right? He didn't just do whatever he feels like doing. There was order. There was in, in, he did things in a certain way. Now the question is a pastor has worked hard. He has ministered to them, right? He started a church. He has worked hard, right? It's not easy, right? And if you're talking about towns and villages, it's not easy to get one family. It's a big deal, right? So now this pastor's worked hard. He's built the church. And if somebody, especially, you know, an evangelist comes, that's his miracles, takes people and go. It is obviously as a pastor, I would say, Hey, what is this? God has made me the shepherd, right? So I have to look after my sheep. Now, if I know that somebody from our church is going to Jehovah's Witness, obviously I should say, Hey, at ABC, something that we follow is we don't force them. But I wouldn't feel bad. I will say, Hey, why? Did, was our teaching not proper? What, what is it that you, who, who diverted your mind? Right? So I would want to know because as a shepherd, I must look after my sheep. I must care for them. So by saying that, okay, anyway, they're going to God, it's true, but God has made you the shepherd for these people. And now over time, if, if the sheep decide and they say, no, no, I want to go from this place, that's nothing that I can do. We can't, we can't hold on to people. Let them go. The hurt may be there. We may feel, you know, sad, but remember that God will, you know, if two goes God can add 10 more to us. Right? Just have a clear conscience, clear heart. But when these things happen, it is definitely painful. But as a shepherd, you deal with it. You talk to them, right? Something that we do at ABC is if, if people want to go to another church, we ask them to write. We ask them for feedback, right? We send them a link. There's a form they fill up. Why do they want to go? Sometimes they say, we're away. Sometimes they say evening service. Sometimes they say we want more fellowship or they want different style of worship. So different reasons. So at least we know that, you know, we are doing our part and see now ABC is big. So when people go, come, we may not know, but I'm sure when we were small, it would have hurt, you know, even if one or two families leave. So I would say to respond to that as a shepherd, you have to look after it. You have to find out what it is. If it's something from our side, get it corrected. If it's something that is not from your side, find out the reason, try to support them. If they still decide to move on, let them go. Yeah. If they deceive, then you can tell them, see, brother, we've been talking about this, you know God's word, but if they still say, no, right, we cannot go there. We cannot control them. We cannot forcefully tell them. Now, look at Apostle Paul, right? He says towards the end of his ministry and I think in Timothy, he says, there were believers, Demetrius. He was a believer, steel worker. He used to work in steel. He was a believer. He worked with Apostle Paul and towards the end, Paul says, he has abandoned the faith. Imagine that. He's with Apostle Paul, with the greatest man apart from Jesus. He did all these wonderful miracles, saw the ministry, saw his life and now Paul is saying he has rejected us. He has moved on. He's been he, he does not believe in the gospel. So there will be people like that, right? But if we are called to any church, right, or if we are as pastors, we are inviting people to church, to your church, give them. You can give them a letter or you can sit and talk to them. Tell them, see the church is 50 people. This is what we believe. These are the things you can speak on, right? These are the topics you can. So one thing that we do is we, if there's a guest speaker many times, we ask them, send your sermon notes before preaching. Send the sermon notes and if you notice there's hardly any guest speaker maybe once or twice a year. It's always our team because we know what we are doing. Very rarely we but even when we do, there are certain guidelines. This is what you should do. This is what you shouldn't do. No getting angry, rebuking and shouting on the mic. We are not like that. Holy anger and shouting and all of those things, no. So there are certain ways. So even you, if you are inviting people to your church, give them guidelines. They will say, who are you to give guidelines? Say you are the pastor of the church. That's why I'm giving you the guide. The moment they say, who are you? No, I'll preach however you want. You tell them to go back. Because they're not humble enough to follow instructions. They may be preaching 100,000. They may say, hey, I preach 100,000. Here only 50 people. But that is your 50 people. It is yours. That 10,000 is not their wish. But this 50 is yours. You look after them. So you tell them, no taking phone number of anyone, no putting pamphlets. No, you tell them openly. No problem. Don't put your pamphlets of the next meeting. Don't take anybody's phone number. Don't talk to the worship leaders and say, can you come lead worship in my program? Don't do all that. Tell them openly. It's nothing like, it's not like hate them. No. What did Jesus say? Hey, before Abraham was I am. Was it sounding nice? You destroy this temple. I'll rebuild it in three days. See, Jesus also was stern in places. You have to be stern. God has given you the authority. You have to do it. What are you doing? You're not trying to put the person down, but you're protecting the church. You're protecting your people. So we have pastors meetings. We used to have pastors meetings, Bangalore pastors meetings. We have guidelines and down every pastor who comes will receive the guideline. No pamphlets. No taking phone numbers of our staff. No asking our staff what they do. Where they go. Everything is guidelines. So there were times people came and kept the tracks their next meeting and all. I said, open their email. We'll make them read it. It's written. Don't do so request you not to do this. They know it. Now some of them didn't come back after that. That's okay. Is it are we safe? We are safe. So it's nothing wrong. You put it on paper, make them sign. So you don't trust me. No sign. It's okay. It's not about trust. It's about doing things the right way. So there's a book called Divine Order in the citywide church. Now the reason I'm saying this quite sternly is because I know many stories. I don't give all the stories. But there are many examples like this and it's painful. One young pastor will come he'll dress up nicely with you know, suit and a boot and all those fully suited up. Now this other pastor is 40 years old. He doesn't like he likes a shirt like me. Right. What will happen? These people want to go there. Why? Because he screams in the mic. This one talks as if everyone will fall asleep. Right. So it's not about that. It's about how we protect our church. Our people is our people. And God puts us as leaders. We must be wise. So if you are a pastor, we'll talk about the ministry of the pastor also. Set these guidelines. Nothing wrong. If they are offended, that means this the heart is not right. If they're not offended, good. Come preach go. Let people be healed. Good. Now what happens if members come and ask? Can I get that pastors number evangelist number? I want to go talk and pray. Sit and talk to your church member. Tell them. Okay. So this is the thing. I'll give you the number. But remember that we are together. We are one body. Right. You explain to them what they do at the end is their option but you have done your part. Right. So as an evangelist. Yeah. The numbers of our church or telling our church members not to go and attend their meeting. Is it not like being in church? No, we don't. So the thing is we don't tell others don't go. Right. So for example, a church in like an APC, anybody can go anywhere. You want to go for any meeting you go. You want to go join their church also go. Right. But what we are doing is as a as a church, we want to protect our sheep and we're not saying don't go. Go. Be blessed wherever you want to go meetings. Go. But there's a way there's divine order that's required in that. So we're not being insecure saying don't go anywhere. No. Go. Right. So even your church members, you can say go. If there's a person who comes visiting your city great evangelist or a preacher, let them go. The moment you control them, they'll want to go. Right. So say you want to go go. So let them go. Right. No. No. This is where you give freedom to them. We don't hold them back. But if they decide to move to another church, we must know the reason why it's not like they are moved. Okay. So God will send 10 more people. That is true. But we also need to know the reason because you're a shepherd. It could be because of us. It could be because some things that they decide now. No church is perfect. You'll find people hopping from one place to another every time. So don't worry about that. Our responsibility is to look after them. So if any one of us as evangelists are going to a church preach and run away from don't run away, but preach minister and just walk away. If people ask for number and I'll just say you talk to your pastor like what you said. Right. So that would be the wise thing to do. Right. Okay. An evangelist may also help start churches as Philip did in Samaria. Right. Now even if you look at the Apostle Paul in some places he didn't start the church. Right. Colossae. Colossae also he didn't start the church. Right. So it was Tychicus who went to Colossae and then they started the church. So when he's writing the Colossae he doesn't know the believers meaning he hasn't seen them. But you know he helped in starting the church. So there will be times evangelists will start churches and they may hand over to other people. I haven't heard of it happening right now, but I'm sure there may have been instances in our city or in our nation as well. Right. John commends in 3rd John 1 5 and 9. He commends the church for taking care of its itinerant preachers and in doing so the believers became fellow helpers of to the truth. It is possible that these strangers were evangelists. So as believers John is writing later on he says the church was looking after their evangelists taking care of them. And then we see also the life of Apostle Paul in Romans 15 7 to 20 and we know the life of Apostle Paul 17 years of ministry. There's missionary journeys, the places that he visited the churches that he planted the letters that he wrote a wonderful, wonderful evangelistic work and that is even bearing fruit right now. Right. So so from what we know in the early church the evangelist was a very powerful role and even now I want to end with this now when we look at evangelists it it's not something that we may always want to follow because nowadays in cities we see people becoming evangelists and it's more of a show it's more of you know of course God has given them gifts and talents but sometimes it becomes like a you know a whole show and a whole that's not what we want to do the gospel is not a pompous gospel it is a simple gospel simple belief, simple people simple faith. So just being a natural you know from you know sometimes people send us clips of what's happening around us and it is really painful to see these things happening right the body of Christ the scriptures are being you know twisted men and women of God have lost the integrity of preaching the gospel we don't want to do that Bible says as an evangelist we are bearers of good tidings right so we'll pick up next next week I think on Wednesday is our next class tomorrow Thursday is our next class so we'll pick up Thursday and we'll look at restoration of the ministry of the evangelist alright alright let's just close in prayer Father we thank you for this time we thank you for teaching us Lord we thank you for your word Lord we pray that you will continue to empower us and equip us Lord that Lord we are called to do that we would walk with purity of heart with one mind with one heart and Lord in everything that we do that we may glorify and honor your name Lord be come with our students everyone who are sitting here and those online Lord we speak a blessing over their lives and pray Lord that you will use them greatly for your kingdom Lord in Jesus name we pray Amen