 Okay, good morning to everyone Welcome to the session. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer. We get into our studying together. Let's pray Father we thank you so much once again for this time that you've given us to study and read and learn Lord I pray that Look, you will minister to us. You will stick to us a God you open our hearts We open our minds to receive from you this morning Lord Even as we learn about church planting things that are involved and I pray God that you will Lord this Put a new desire put a new A new desire not hard to do what you have called us to do Lord. We pray God that you will empower us and You will strengthen us. You will encourage us exalt us today or through your word We thank you for doing this Lord Jesus name. We pray All right so last class we did up to chapter 18 You look at the spiritual aspects when it comes to church planting and we also looked at Some of the natural aspects initially that we look at spiritual aspects, which is really important when it comes to Ministry especially church planting So we saw that how the enemy blinds people the enemy owns people in bondage Satan hinders the proclamation of the gospel Then he weakens the church by infiltrating through different areas within the church chapter 18. We looked at exercising that is praying and exercising authority For spiritual transformation that is praying for the lost and you look at spiritual warfare that is prayer worship Intercession and even as we do all of this always You know stand in a place of victory Remember you're fighting the devil Fighting the words of the enemy But you're not fighting it alone Right, there will be days which will be really hard. There will be days We'll just be able to overcome these challenges, but remember your staff and my staff as believers as Ministers of God is a standard victory Right. So when you function out of that Understanding out of that identity that hey, I'm already victorious Satan has been defeated Satan out in brush The devil has no authority over me God himself about Jesus himself has said go and reach out and and I would build my church the gates of against it. So then we We begin to walk in this place of authority and But even as we do that we learned last class that we need to close all entry points for the devil Yes, we're doing the work of the ministry Doing God's work, but we are human beings and we will make mistakes There will be temptations. There will be challenges. So we close all kinds of entry points, right now Especially, you know in leadership or you're pioneering a church here in this place of leadership It's very easy to open doors to the enemy right now Because there's nobody in question you just sometimes there's no accountability Because you're the one who started the ministry you're in this place of leadership but always be aware of what's happening be aware of The doors that are there in our life There are those that we have to close close them immediately. There are doors That we have to ask the Holy Spirit to work in our lives do that immediately Right, then we saw how we can exercise spiritual authority By the presence of praise and worship declare the finished work of the cross Identify and pull down strongholds. So that's what we did We studied on, you know Different areas different localities That we are ministering and will have different kinds of strongholds. There will be different You know, the demonic oppression could be Varied in different places. So what you and I must do is we must Identify areas or demonic Strongholds like, you know, for example, it could be drug addiction prostitution you know Anything that is prevalent Unnatural death is constantly happening So these are those that we need to identify and pull down And so let's go into chapter 19, which is proclaiming the uncompromised gospel with power right so even as you You and I have planted the church. We are doing all that we have to do in the in the natural and the spiritual You and I are being responsibility of Starting a church pioneering a church is to proclaim the gospel Church is not about activities. It is not about conferences We have conferences. We need them. We have youth meetings and ministry women's ministry. We need all of it But what is the reason for doing it one to proclaim the gospel to to bring people to a place of maturity to grow together in Christ So Jesus himself instructed for the gospel to be proclaimed in power. Let's read mark chapter 16 15 through 20 Mark chapter 16 15 through 20 anybody can please read Chapter 16 Yes mark 16 15 through 20 And he said to them go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature He who believes and is baptized will be saved But he who does not believe will be content and these signs will follow those who believe in my name They will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues they will take up serpents and If they drink any deadly it will by no means hurt them They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover So so then after the Lord has spoken to them He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God and they went out and preached everywhere the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs in Amen. Thank you. Thank you rose good. So we see here. Jesus is Is commissioning his disciples and he's saying go all the world proclaim the gospel and these signs will follow them Right now. It's very simple. What Jesus is saying if you preach the gospel these signs will fall I so sometimes what we do is we look at the reverse We go behind science wonders, which is important and Then we you know, we try to get people's attention and then we preach the gospel, right? We know that there are different ways, but Jesus is saying here Firstly, preach the gospel share the word share the message and then these signs will follow automatically So when we are ministering either to individuals to Congregation life groups whichever setting we are in Be sure to preach and teach the word of God But the word of God is what enables us which sanctifies us There are plenty of verses in the Bible which talks about the power of God's word So the word of God is like water it refreshes It's like hammer which breaks what I've got is like a double-edged sword which penetrates our heart So it is a word That can touch people's lives. It's a word which is living It can really minister to people, right? So So proclaiming the uncompromised word of God get it preach the gospel wherever you can whenever you can and When you're doing this it will be followed by signs, wonders and miracles Right? When we proclaim the gospel right now, for example, it is You know, you're just maybe a year you're buying out your church You've been preaching faithfully Sundays or Sunday preparing teaching preaching and And You know, there are times we may feel discouraged or it's happened to me as well, right where We're preaching we believe we won't science wonders to happen and sometimes it doesn't happen but The Bible says that when we do this God will follow it up But science wonders and miracles So so expect Science wonders and miracles even if it if you don't see it happening initially in your ministry Don't write it write it off. Don't say, okay. Maybe this is not what my ministry is Maybe my ministry is only teaching or my ministry is only preaching Right. No, don't write it off We can never come to a place and say, okay, maybe I'm not the healing evangelist or We'll maybe that gift is not it Each one of us when we preach when we preach the word of God Science wonders and miracles will follow. We have to perceive what Right, and then when you teach it to your congregation, what did Jesus do? Look at his example He thought and when he taught them He was they he built faith in their hearts and they began to believe And if you look at this simple example of Jesus with the five feeding the five thousand, what happened? Jesus said Bring what you have five blows of bread to fish you bring it And he instilled faith in them He would have said, you know, don't worry. Just go ahead And do what I tell you to do And the disciples took it And they when they put their faith into practice. It is when the fool is multiplied Right. So as believers as pastors and leaders we are to Do the same Preach teach expect science wonders and miracles Right. So to claim the full gospel second the second way of read of ministering to people Is that we reason and demonstrate We reason with people and demonstrate now God has given us a mind Right and we have to use our mind So we are to think how we speak we are to think how to reason And we are also all did it at many places Let's read a few of them here at Papas acts chapter 13 was 6 to 12 Maybe one person can open to act 17 one before And act 17 10 and 12 as well Yeah, so these are examples of how how for reason with people acts 13 6 to 12 At 13 6 to 12 now when they had gone through the island of pathos They found a certain sorcerer a false prophet a Jew whose name was bar jesus Who was with the proconsul surges paulus an intelligent man This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God But elements the sorcerer for so is his name is translated Which stood them seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith Then Saul who also is called paul filled with the Holy Spirit looked intently at him and said Oh full of all deceit and all fraud you son of the devil you enemy of all righteousness Will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you and you shall be blind not seeing the sun for a time And immediately a darkness fell on him and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had been done being astonished at the teaching of the Lord And so you see here that Paul when he saw this person who was you know driven by a demonic spirit Paul Immediately by faith I've been says here look straight at elements and said you are the child of the devil and an enemy Everything that is right. You're full of deceit He he not only reasoned what was happening. He understood what is happening, but he demonstrated Power he didn't say I know who you are and walk away, but he said I know what you're doing I know that you are You're a spirit and evil spirit that is You know prophesying and talking and doing all of this poor film of the spirit was able to You know just Reason and he demonstrated the power of God Where darkness came on him and he was blinded. Let's go to the next one in Thessalonica Act 1714 Go ahead Anybody can read at 1714 now when they had passed through and fee and fee police and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews Then Paul as his custom was went into them and for three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures Explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and same This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ and some of them were persuaded and a great multitude of the devotee Greeks and not A few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas Right. So here there's another there's another portion here. Paul is in Thessalonica now Thessalonica is uh, Asia Minor Right now these people are very very learned. So it says here that Paul went as custom. He went into the synagogue three sabbaths and he did three things He explained No, sorry. He reasoned he explained and he proclaimed One he reasoned with them. He explained it to them and he proclaimed them Proclaiming meaning demonstrated to them Right. Now if you go down in the same chapter acts 10 Act 1710 onwards is very uh, right? Was 10 as soon as it was night the brothers said Paul and Silas to Berea on arriving there They went to the Jewish in abroad but the Bereans were a noble character Than the Thessalonians, but they received the message with great eagerness and examined in the scriptures Every day to see what Paul was saying was true So the Bereans again for reason with them and they were more noble, right? So they were asking questions. What is he preaching? So they went back to the scriptures and they and they saw okay It's what he's saying in line with the scriptures Right when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching But look at verse 12 many of the Jews believed and also did a prominent number of Greek men and women by doing what? by just teaching and Reaching and just reasoning with the people many of them believed in the gospel That they will choose and they will Greece Right. Let's go down acts 17 at Athens. Now. This is the most uh elaborate example and Mainly used example when it comes to reasoning and giving a defense Act 17 Paul is in Athens and he's walking through Athens He's looking at the place and he's saying we've seen idols there and seem to an unknown god And Paul goes in and he begins to reason with the people right verse 24 the god who made this world I sorry, let's go over to verse 23 But I walked around and looked carefully At your objects of worship. I even found an author with a description to an unknown god Now what you worship as unknown? I will make it known and I'm going to proclaim to you the god who made the world And everything in it the lord of heaven and he goes on to explain Right. So you see what's happening here? He's reasoning Paul didn't you know, what would be the wrong thing to do? Paul saying hey, uh, you all are idol worshipers. You uh, you'll have The wrath of god is coming upon you You all you know god is a holy god, but you're not doing this Idol is an abomination to god So now I'm going to share a message to you You if you you want to listen to it, please listen to it so that this is what will change your life You don't see that don't see him doing that. What is he doing? He's reasoning with them He's using their context their surroundings their own People their own culture and he's reasoning and bringing in the gospel I see that you all are very religious Which is a good thing. I see that there's a God there's a statue when you said to an unknown god now what you Feel is unknown. I am going to explain them to you and he goes on to explain Look at the last portion of this Like it was 32 when they heard about the resurrection of the dead Some of them sneered but others said we want to hear more Verse 34 of few men became followers of Paul and believed They believe them Few men became followers of Paul. Why because he reasoned with them Was there any miracles? Was there any signs in wonders? No No miracles. No signs. No wonder just reasoning and preaching the word of God Right, let's go to Corinth Acts chapter 18 and verse 4 From there, he went to Corinth was for every Sabbath. He reasoned in the synagogue Trying to persuade Jews and Greeks Right, so you see that the apostle Paul it was a habit for him Wherever he went he reasoned and then he demonstrated Acts 18 19 in Ephesus What happens in Ephesus? Paul stayed on in Corinth and for some time then he left his brothers St. Pasiria accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila And 19 they arrived at Ephesus where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila He himself went up to the synagogue and reasoned the Jews So you see that pattern? It was the Paul is following Now when we present the gospel very important As pastors and leaders Be relevant To the people be relevant to this place to the setting that you are And now let me give you this example So based back, you know, uh this elderly pastor Had come home and he had just happened to come home And so he came he just shared a word and we told him see we are already Christians. He can maybe think of We just prayed with him Now he's got a genuine heart and a genuine heart to serve God but he is He's come from a more of a brutal village setting So what he would do is he would you know Take these musical instruments and What he did was he used to stand on the streets and sing and Play a song and all of that. He just stands and he began to preach now That's wonderful. There's nothing wrong with that There's nothing wrong with that But here's the thing Is it addressing the people In that place now remember that the city we stay in is Is an urban city Nobody has time Right now i'm not saying what he's doing is wrong But what i'm saying is is it going to be effective? And then eventually what happened people came out and scolded him Um, you know, he felt bad and we all felt bad too, but Because it's just strategized we need to learn how to adapt now I'm not blaming him because he's from a village background. He's been doing ministry for about 30 years the same way But you and I must We need to change according to what is happening around us Right. We address people why will we demonstrate the supernatural power of God? So we need to develop that ability right now. What's happening now? If I don't improve myself 10 years from now i'm doing the same for one decade from now to do the same thing The same way of preaching or the same You know way of ministry Then something is wrong. I need to be improving For 10 years from now a decade from now things are going to be changing There's going to be so much in terms of worship In terms of church Probably there are new gadgets new Digital distributions and all kinds of digital but everything is going to come up different ideas different strategies so it's going to be up to date right, so As pastors as leaders We need to develop this ability and then when we develop it we can Put it forward to our team members as well Then they cast the vision Next point that we talk about is breaking controlling powers Like we talked about this last class, but let's just quickly look at it every place Has certain authority that the devil has every area There are authorities that are strong holds that the devil has Right now when you and I as believers enter into those places We usher in the presence of God through praise and worship prayer Preaching demonstration of the gospel of supernatural signs and wonders We break the influence of those controlling powers or those strongholds over people And we talked about those Philip preached in samaria and and in samaria and Simon the sorcerer Right, so we know that in samaria sorcery would have been one of those strongholds so Philip preached and Simon was You know restored but Paul and Barnabas demonstrated and preached the gospel in acts 13 again sorcery Philippi was the slave girl slavery right And and in Ephesus dethroned the control of goddess Diana over the people. So we see that at different places just like what's happened in the Early church even now wherever we are Wherever we have been we are you know in ministry or we're living the realities that we are there are strongholds in and around And so these strongholds will Begin to lose its grip when you and I are showed in the presence of God So here's the thing that we can do as a church get together Play together five days of prayer or now that everyone is busy you can choose You know worship night worship evening Come together spend time to bring in the presence of God Right now we may be doing something in the natural Like maybe prayer and worship but remember that in the spiritual Something is happening Right in the spirit. So we may not see it. We may not Or see it immediately as well. We may not understand what's happening in the spiritual That's the front thing is happening right So we were chapter 20 you and I are to equip the saints for this It is not a one man's job Right, we can't go about praying everywhere in the city and say, okay I alone will go and pray and those strongholds will break The Lord Jesus himself built a team So we equip our church members. I was thinking about this today, you know The day you start your ministry is the day you need to plan your exit Meaning you should have That in your mind, okay, not there There should be the ministry should go on the people should be there All chose Timothy when he was 17 years old That's probably about 17 and raised him up to be a good leader He was only in his second national region. He just probably did Eight or almost a year of ministry. That's it He knew that he needed these people They're going to take off the ministry going forward so Equip saints empower them and release them first one. How do you equip the saints? Do you make them stand with you the whole day? Or make them do all your work for the whole day? You teach God's word The local church must clean People with a word of God With the truth of God's word and with that comes wisdom knowledge understanding power strength holiness Everything will flow out of it I teach God's word Never come to a place as pastors where we don't have the time to teach God's word So one thing that we intentionally Do it apc is if you notice our sermons we We don't add any personal examples It's only in the bible college setting just to help us learn. This is a different setting. So we use personal examples Uh examples are there around us, but in the church setting on sundays sunday morning we We preach the word 45 minutes or 15 minutes of the word is being preached all our camps Right because it is a word that will Empower people it is a word that will build people up The local church but whole God's truth in the society and in the world So as a church We uphold God's word say okay. We stand by the things that God says in his word And we will preach by the things what God says in his word now people may accept people may reject We don't have the ability to control that But we do have the ability of what we preach and teach we uphold and teach God's word So right now when you look at the gnc Right and you have some young boys and girls and they come up to you and they say uh is Being a lesbian wrong or is being gay wrong. It's gay marriage wrong Now you've got a choice why You say the answer is either yes or no and To follow that up we always have God God's word to teach them to To reason with them that hard hard Is able to minister and to you know, sometimes we think these are things that we must only reason No, sometimes we just need to give a word Just giving a bible words can really touch their lives Teaching because of God's word I'm not saying everyone is going to accept it because that's what happened to Jesus He was teaching the truth And again his disciples was teaching the truth. What did they do? They rejected his message But those who received his message saw the blessings of God in their life All right, so Teach God's word let that be number one priority in your church number one Look at this example The church in cauldron yellow is also studying about the church in cauldron The Corinthians the episodes the current church in cauldron was flowing in all the gifts of the spill But Paul says you're not immature. I need to feed you milk So you're not yet ready for the world for the food of God's word. Why? This they had all the gifts There's no maturity maturity comes in by teaching God's word You can have a person Who is flowing in all the gifts of the spirit yet be immature So the gifts of the spirit is not something that we measure our You know our ministry with or our spiritual life Gifts of the spirit is important That's not what we measure See the church in cauldron. They they had all the gifts Yet there was division. There was strike They didn't know how to have the Lord stable It's confusion within the church But the word of God is what brings correction Do please emphasis also on the supernatural As God's people you and I As a pastor especially We need to manifest the supernatural. We need to pray and ask God to release the supernatural in us and through us right Now here's the thing If sometimes there's a there's a blockage in our mind, which the enemy puts The enemy will say hey, you are not a healing event or healing Deliverance word of knowledge prophetic. These are all for pastors who are who have 500 people or thousand people in the church You're only 50 people in your church. So this is not yet for you That's a line from the enemy Nowhere in the Bible Has Jesus said only when your ministry grows, you will see signs wonders and miracles When Jesus had 12 disciples When he went to places initially It was probably reaching to 10-15 people These are signs of wonders and miracles So place an emphasis on the supernatural You know when you and I as pastors when we teach Right, so for example, you're teaching about God's word You're teaching about hey, you know what Moses did he he pardoned the season to And the people of Israel walked through it You know what uh, what happened to Daniel you he was in the lion's den not one lion tried to attack you Look at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednikov. They were put into the fire but the fire did not burn them Look at Jesus. He walked on the water. Nobody else did that He said to the waters peace be still He he took five loaves of bread to respect the thousands. He raised up the dead Now what are we doing all of a sudden we have We believe it We're committed of it. We We are preaching it. You're encouraging the church to tap into the supernatural There is a supernatural God is a supernatural God Right, so we're encouraging the congregation not to look at things in the natural alone But to also look into the supernatural Encourage people to pursue that Pursue God's presence. Now here's another important thing Don't pursue only God when will I see gifts when will I see miracles? That's not what we want. We pursue God. What does the verse say in Mark that we read? These signs will follow you If you preach the gospel If you preach God's word the signs themselves will follow you Like we pray we preach Let the science follow All right Three we equip God's people to be salt and light show them How to be the salt how to be the light Teach them you and I set the example And then we teach so for example, you know, we have Our men's ministry And something that we always do is we have one is a men's conference yearly conference And then we have quarterly men's breakfast fellowship. So what we do is we We touch on topics that men really don't get to talk about Right, so The most men are working Monday to Friday They're looking after the house things in the house that need to get done And so we try to talk about things that men go through How can I be a godly man? How can I be a godly husband? A good father? All of these Points which may not be taught on Sunday morning But we even if they are taught we just go deeper into these points. We teach equipped people Or then we have professionals conference where we equip people on how to Live a godly life in the corporate world Right how to say no to To you know To things that are not of god How to be obedient how to be a testimony how to be a salt and light in the corporate world And we equip them We teach them people who are trained come and teach So equip your people Right and if you're equipping from ministry Light group leaders cell group leaders and now eventually youth leaders volunteer team leaders Get them equip them Right, especially when it comes to leadership in the church You know, you'll have to make certain decisions Right, so how to make those decisions When to make a decision all these things we can learn now I'm not saying that You know, we know everything and we make the right decisions. No, there are times we are made wrong decisions And we learn from them Right and so be as leaders be open to even sharing Places where you have failed because you're letting them know that hey, it's not right I'm I'm infallible or something Right, even I make mistakes as a leader even I went through this But you're learning together Right equip gods people for evangelism Again, there are many ways that we can evangelize equip them for that Empower sorry equip empower and set Right Equip them empower them think okay now you go And you teach and you preach right and then send them out to impact And again equipping the saints We need a lot of Volunteers we need we can do a lot of events, right? now without the events We won't be able to equip them. We need them We're not saying no to events and conflict. We need them uh But even as you meet in a conference or event make sure that The time is used in a right way the teaching is done in the right way And it would be effective people remember. Hey, there's two days conference that I went for I learned this from god's word Or if it's a pastor's conference these two days conference I learned how to Uh, you know be a good leader and things that I must do in as a leader personal life character as a leader Right to make it meaningful uh Those two those days those conferences events Uh, make it meaningful, right? So When we do that we know okay the time the day the conference Is is blessing people's lives and then eventually you'll see you will see that impact And you will see people in your church They are changing they're going stronger. They're they're growing in maturity what they were five years back They're completely different now. They understand Uh, they're depending on god. They're stronger in the spirit. We will see it in our life Uh, let's quickly do chapter 21 the citywide church now When we start a local church in a city We usually spend a lot of time in this in your church, right? You're still trying to develop the church Uh, we're still trying to build the church the first three four years very important to building trust Among your congregation, um, you know strategizing getting things in place administratively Getting things in place now even as you do that always keep in mind That you are part of a bigger body as well, right within the church So one you can look for ways to build trust and strengthen relationships with other churches now Even as you do that, right? You know, we can probably go meet pastors get other pastors to come and share but be wise On how we'll do this, right? Uh Don't be the hurry To invite somebody to come and preach Make sure that You know that the preaching teaching is done in the right way Give them guidelines now See the reason is I've heard this once our pastor said this to us, you know, it takes Years of hard work to build a ministry but If something that is done and said in the wrong way It'll just take a few moments for it to crumble down A few moments Your years of hard work Few moments can just crumble down Like or something wrongly said or something Uh, you know anything right done or said So look for ways To strengthen and build relationships build trust now. There are times People would wouldn't want to Uh, you know Involved with you as a church involved with you or maybe you feel it's not the right time to involve together at this church It's all right. It's not like you'll be so paying God's word Right, but there'll be times God will orchestrate things right orchestrate ministries to come together work together Right and uh, and we do that every week We have certain ministries that we work together to support each other as well in In the ministry find ways to strengthen and serve other churches In the city and outside the city as well And so if you if there are some I remember many many years back there was this ministry which reached out to the children from you know From the slums and the way they reached out was through football soccer Right, so they every morning they would go out play soccer And then after soccer give them some refreshments and then share a gospel message and this way many of them became believers Now this person who was leading this ministry was part of our church Uh, but she had a job as well, right? So but she really wanted to equip these Uh young boys young boys, right? So the story that became 20 30 people 50 people Ministry the children started growing many people believed in Jesus, but now they need a good study. So I remember I'm talking about 2015 Uh, I'm 14 2015. Uh, what we used to do is we used to go. We had a they had a small office They would go there Somewhere around 8 o'clock in the morning. We would go there. You would teach them for one hour Right who we are and Christ foundations teach them the word of God one hour And I think it was alternate days. I'm not sure the days but Uh, but we would go there and teach And and so we had what we were doing was we were Helping out these other ministries And all we did was teaching them the word of God, but they were so blessed. They were we give them our publications free books they would you know They were so happy to receive that Uh, and again, they were strengthened in the word. So even as you Now build your church build your ministry Uh, you know, it's very important that you have a kingdom mindset Right. Yes, it's your ministry your church Also think about how you can be an impact For the kingdom of God together In the body of Christ So some of the books recommended reading is kingdom builders from bastards written the book on kingdom builders And just go to the website and download that as well And another book would be divine order in the city white church where We talk about how You and I as leaders and pastors must maintain order in the city white church So these two books are good recommended reading. So do take time. They can just download the pdf And read it. I know that kingdom builders you may have already completed as of course, but um, we can read it again kingdom builders and divine order in the city white church All right, so Any questions any thoughts before we close? Okay, so let's just close in prayer and And I hope the study is You know able to grasp and I really encourage each one of us if God has given us the vision to start the church or start a ministry Disapply these things begin to step out and create. I'm sure God will Work in our lives. Let's pray Although we thank you so much for this time. We thank you Lord for teaching us And even as we go about our day and our week Lord, I pray that you will continue Lord to speak to our hearts Let there be New plans and purposes worth in our heart Lord. Thank you That Lord you are always with us. You will strengthen us. You will empower us God We give you all the praise and glory in Jesus name we pray Amen Amen. God bless you all have a wonderful week ahead I'll see you soon. Bye Thank you