We Are Making Disciples

The United Church of God have crafted a specific mission statement for us that speaks to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God to all the world modeled after not only this verse but other verses in Scripture that give the mission and show what the church is to do. And as I say, it's a very, very powerful message that Christ gave to His disciples and to His church. Now, let me make a statement that I will spend a bit of time explaining, but not too much time. Today in the United Church of God, we have neutered ourselves a little bit, perhaps some ways even more than a little bit. As we approach the big job and the big message that we have, we have come quite a journey in the United Church of God to where we are today in 2014 with all the many years that we have had as an experience on this journey toward the kingdom of God and the calling that God has given to us as individuals, to His kingdom, the mission that we find ourselves involved with in the church, and all the years of experience that we collectively represent within the United Church of God. And it's quite an experience. Don't need to go into all the details of that except for this one area. The church I came into through my mother a number of years ago had this same mission. But it also felt that it was the one true church and that there were no other true churches. And we have gone from telling ourselves today that we were the only one in true church to saying that we are a part of the larger body of Jesus Christ and that there are members of the body of Christ scattered among the many offshoots that may have found themselves a part of the church that I originally became a part of and many of you and in other places wherever God might have. We have actually embodied that into a statement at the very beginning of the United Church of God as we dealt with the aftermath of 1995 and the matters there. And we have said that. And in the process we have told ourselves and say that in a sense the United Church of God as an organization is not the only true church, if you will. I think we all understand that in that sense.

Now I'm not here today to reverse that and say that we are the one true church. I do believe that there is one church, one faith, one body, one baptism, one spirit. I believe that with all my heart and being. And the Church of God is a spiritual body with one head and that is Jesus Christ. I believe that firmly as well. And I also believe that we in the United Church of God have been given a very powerful and strong message that is the one true message to preach to a world, if you will, the one true gospel.

It's not my business to worry about what others are doing wherever they may find themselves and whatever they may be doing. That is not my business. I know where I am and what I am a part of. And I also read the Scriptures and know what I believe that God has given to us to do in our part within the Church. Now, I said that perhaps we have neutered ourselves somewhat as we have worked our way through this in our thinking and in our organizational approach.

Because it's one thing to grow an understanding to recognize just how big God is and what He is doing. But it's another thing to diminish the very message that we are to give as the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God, which we should never do. I think about the prophet Elijah. We all know the story of Elijah, who had this confrontation on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal. And at the end of a period of time where there was no rain and he called down the rain and the fire and the prophets of Baal all met there, crispy, toasty end.

And then Jezebel made a threat to him and he got all upset and he fled off into the wilderness and there had an encounter with God. And woe is me, Elijah, who's saying, and God kind of walking through a windstorm and a rainstorm and a firestorm and a still small voice to show him a few things.

And at the end of that, Elijah was told by God, you know what, Elijah? You're not the only one. I've still got 7,000 who have not bowed to need of Baal. Oh, Elijah thought, oh, I'm not the only one. You got 7,000? I thought I was the only one. We serve a big God and God works in very powerful and mysterious ways at times and one day we'll get it all figured out.

But he said to Elijah, I've got 7,000 others. Now I'm working with you and yes, we'll do what I'm going to do with you, but you know, go find Elisha. Your time's over and give your mantle over to your successor. And God's work goes on. Elijah had to remember that he was dealing with the one true God and his message, the message of that one true God.

We should be like Elijah in that we remember that we have the one true message, the one true gospel that we have been privileged to understand and work with and to share. As Jesus said, to go and teach all nations, to make disciples, teach them what I've commanded you. And we take that up as a mantle of responsibility and filled with a conviction and a passion that we do have the one true message that a world needs to hear. That any who God brings into our sphere of influence, if you will, and whom we have the privilege of sharing the message with, we have that a message that can give them understanding and help for today and their life, help to be able to understand that it's worth getting up the next day and trying again.

That it's worth rebuilding your life, even if it comes crashing down through a divorce, through a setback, through whatever it might be. That we give them help to know that with God they can get back up, or we can move through whatever it is that is the challenge of a sometimes chaotic, confused life that we have. We give them help to understand that.

I was reading a couple of years ago an article about Bruce Springsteen.

You all know who Bruce Springsteen is?

He's about 65 years old today, and Bruce Springsteen still fills the concert halls, rocking away. You can think whatever you want to think about him or his music. But as I was reading the article, because I was late to discover Bruce Springsteen, I had misspent youth, and I've been fascinated with him, to be honest. But the article is talking about why this 65-year-old aging rocker still packs in an arena when he goes on tour all over the world. And it came down to this basically that he speaks their language. His lyrics and his music and his words, for good or bad, help people to get through a chaotic, confused life that they might have for the three or four hours, and he gives a three or four-hour concert, that they sit and listen to him. They get their meaning in life. They get a recharge of a purpose through the lyrics and the music. That's why they will pay $150 to $200 to $500 a ticket to listen to him, because it is their meaning, their purpose in life. Now, we have something a little bit different, don't we? You're here today, as part of the church, and an experience, a spiritual experience, and a relationship with God that this is your purpose in meeting. We go to our Feast of Tabernacles, and that's our spiritual high point of the year. That's where we kind of plug in in an even more energetic way to have that sense of understanding. But we all need that help. That's my point each day. And the message of the gospel that we share is a means of providing that help, not only for us, but for a world that comes in contact with us. Whatever portion of the world we have as an audience, what we give them is a very powerful message and a very important tool to help them make it through the night, make it through each day, make it through each season of life, and to make it through this life.

And we also give them hope for tomorrow. We give them help for what they need today, but the message of the gospel also gives hope for tomorrow. That there is a kingdom of God coming. That there is a God. That there is a purpose that is a very wonderful purpose that is being worked out.

Help for today and hope for tomorrow and for a better world to come through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. That's what we do. That's our big message, if you will.

That's the true message. And it's that message that must energize us.

Just as much as perhaps 40, 50 years ago, let's just be real blunt, if you came into the church of God and you were told you were a part of the one true church, and that's what you needed to hear, and that's what checked your box, and then all that's happened in all that period of time somehow makes us scratch our head and wonder what's it all about? No. The message is still the same. And it is the one true message that is so valuable, so important, and so energizing that we must be proclaiming. And it still must be energizing our life. That is what the church that Jesus Christ is building will be doing. That is what the people that Jesus Christ is working with, as the Father has given to him, will be doing. And it is a very deeply held conviction and belief that we must have that should motivate us. It is that message that should get us out of bed each day, even when we don't want to get out of bed and they want to just stay in bed.

Sometimes a person can get discouraged to the point of depression, and I've been called into certain situations where the depression gets them to where they don't even want to get out of bed. And I'm sitting there and have been talking with them and trying to encourage them to get out of bed. You've got to get up. You've got to get going. Because sometimes life can just beat us down to where we don't want to get out of bed. But the hope that we have, and certainly the help that the message of the gospel gives us, should be that strong that that's what gets us out of bed every morning. That's what we want to be a part of because it is that one true message that rings loud and clear in our life and in our whole being.

And through a deep inner hope and joy, we understand God's divine purpose for our life, and we see our part in that mission. So we've got to keep that firmly in our mind.

I think that when we are driven by that conviction, then that belief, we can do anything.

Indeed, we are a very small church in the United Church of God with a few thousand people. And it's very humbling to understand our size when we look only at that, but it is rather deeply inspiring when we move off of that and look at the very powerful message that God has given to us, and the message and the mission of the church to which we are called as we read it here in Matthew 28. And again, because of what happens organizationally, we can become cynical, tired, and burned out. We can just kind of be coasting to retirement, just hanging on. And I'm not commenting about your pastor.

I can talk to Mr. Hargrove like that. We're old friends.

And he's retired once. He can retire again. Who knows? We may have to bring him out of retirement a third time. You never know in his life. In Ephesians 3, verse 17, verse 14, Ephesians 3, Paul writes, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom a whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with Mike through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in you, may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and the depth and the height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Christ will dwell in our hearts and with any and all who are His, through the Holy Spirit, through His Spirit, and if that is, and if we believe that that is the case, then we can fulfill our calling and mission in life. And quite frankly, any of us, no matter what's in front of us each day, each season of our life, no matter what challenge it is there, if we believe what is written here in verse 17, that Christ is in our hearts, we can do anything. We can do anything if we truly believe that and pay more than lip service to it.

It's that type of person that is a part of the church that Jesus Christ is putting together, that Christ is building toward, who believes that anything can be done through Christ, who is a part of our life.

When we read that commission of Matthew 28 to go and make disciples, it's sometimes we just have to be kind of refocused and there are things that God gives us, all of us at any time, no matter what part we have in the work of God to be reminded that indeed it is being accomplished, that we are making disciples, that what we are doing is paying off.

There's a phrase sometimes that is used in business called ROI, return on investment.

For money and capital spent, it invested in the enterprise. What's coming back in?

Every business has to look at that and measure it. Now, it's an imperfect application when we take that to the church. Sometimes people want to know, well, what's our return on our investment, the church? Meaning, what are we getting for the money we're spending in the church?

And you can ask that question about the media effort, television, print, internet. You can ask that about a pastoral salary for a congregation of people. What are we getting for our investment?

It applies across the board, but often it's applied to our media efforts because we believe very firmly in what Matthew 28, 19 says, which is to go and make disciples and to preach the gospel. And we are about that business, and we want to see the fruit born, which is true.

And again, as I said, every so often, God gives us the encouragement and the signs that we need to help us realize, I think, that indeed that work is being done. Let me tell you about a recent experience I had that was put down and plopped down in front of me and helped me to refocus on this and to realize that indeed we are making disciples. I was approached by the Canadian branch of the United Church of God back in the spring to come up to the Feast of Tabernacles this year in Prince Edward Island, and then afterwards to do a series of public appearance campaigns. Canada has been airing the Beyond Today television program longer than it has on broadcast television here in the States. They started about eight or nine years ago, soon after we actually began filming Beyond Today. They picked it up and started airing it in Canada. So they have quite a track record and they've seen quite a bit of fruit born from it.

And they had the idea, well, maybe we could just advertise one of the presenters to go and we could go to Prince Edward Island, we could go to Toronto and say, come and listen to one of our presenters on Beyond Today as it has aired and interact and hear a message from him. And so they sent a letter out, and since I happen to be one of the presenters and the one without a pastorate and kind of a bit freer to just go like that, I was asked to do it. So we, since beginning at the Feast on Prince Edward Island and then on two other trips afterward through November, we conducted about five different campaigns or appearances, seminars, however, whatever you want to call them, in five locations.

Prince Edward Island during the Feast, Hamilton in Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario, and Windsor, Ontario afterwards over a two to three week period. And it was extremely rewarding to be able to go and not only meet the membership in those areas, but to also meet the several dozen people who came out.

We had about 47 people respond to the letter and come and engage with us. We had as low as two in one location and as many as 17 in another location. So we had a mixture of success. But I will tell you that every one that we had a chance to engage with was a new person that walked through the door. It was an exhilarating experience to talk to them and to engage for just a few minutes beyond a presentation one-on-one and hear their story. And I think God gave us an interesting group of people because I collected a lot of stories and just talking with people and hearing them. And in summing it all up, afterwards, my one conclusion is one sentence. We are making disciples. We are making disciples by what we do not just with our television but with our publications, the Good News magazine, booklets, the internet, the engagement and the action interaction of our membership, you, and all of us as we collectively share the gospel of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God. We are making disciples. And God is the one who is calling and will call and place each and all into the body of Christ. That's automatic. That's John 644. None can come to me except the spirit of the Father draw of it.

And the Father is drawing. Now there are people at various stages of the continuum and stages of development. I met one lady who talked to me and she had tears in her eyes.

I thought, was I that bad? It was my message. No, it wasn't that. She had tears in her eyes.

She said, I learned about the Sabbath through beyond today. I learned about the Sabbath through beyond today. She kind of got choked up and just had to turn and walk away. I thought, good, good. The programs that we have done, we've done several on the Sabbath, have helped to disciple this individual. Now, I don't know all the details of her life and I expect that in time, if she continues to keep the Sabbath, she'll be led through into deeper understanding of the truth as God works with her. Another individual, another person talked with me and began to just be very open about their story.

And they needed someone to talk to. And the comment was, you know, if my family had known this, what we know now, as a result of her engagement with the church, she said, if my family had known this, it wouldn't be in the mess that it's in today. My husband and I would not have made the mistakes that we have made if we had known what I have learned here. We are making disciples.

We are doing what Jesus Christ gave as the mission to the church, and it is being done.

Now, is it being done at the level we might, from our perspective, like to see it done?

You know, in terms of dozens and dozens and hundreds of people perhaps at a time coming, I guess, you know, the vanity of any of us that are on television, and I can speak for Gary Petty and Steve Myers, myself, put thrust into that type of position, and virtually, you know, any minister that is going to speak for a group of people feels the same way. You'd love to have a Kingdom of God seminar or a public appearance campaign and fill what's your arena here in Columbus. What is it? Ohio State. Yeah, let's go to the big. We just... Ohio State Stadium.

We just love to fill Ohio State Stadium with 40, 50, 60,000 people and have them hear a message of the Kingdom of God. But that hasn't happened yet. I mean, there was a time in Canada when another individual in our story could... and did, on consecutive nights, fill an auditorium.

But I didn't fill an auditorium in Toronto. Okay? And God has His reasons for that.

But that doesn't mean that what we are doing is not effective. That doesn't mean that the one true message that we have been given is not having an impact. We are making disciples in ways we do not see and know and fully understand. And God, the same God who was working mightily through a man like Elijah in a very powerful public way, was also working behind the scenes in the quiet shadows with 7,000 other people that the great man Elijah didn't even know about.

They weren't sitting and listening to Him every Sabbath. But they were listening to God.

And God was working with them. And it's the same God who is working today.

But we have our message and our part and our responsibility, and it is bearing fruit.

And to see the engagement, one of the, you know, beyond individuals that came to hear of these recent seminars that we did, it was equally encouraging to see the excitement of the members as they interacted with these individuals and to prepare for that. And, you know, in the congregation, some of them very small. The Windsor, Ontario congregation just across the river there from Detroit, about 20-25 members. And we had seven people come to the Sabbath we were there.

And I'm looking and meeting the people there, and I'm thinking, you know what?

If God's going to put people into a group of, into a good bed of members in which they can be nourished and fed and nurtured spiritually, this is as good a group as any.

And we have congregations like that all over the place.

Of people like you who are dedicated, who are, been persevering, who believe, and who are motivated and engaged by the true gospel of the kingdom of God. The true message.

So God is doing what He's going to do, and we are making disciples. And the gospel is changing people's lives as we are engaged in making it available.

And it, as I come away from something like what I was privileged to be a part of, and this has been, become my full-time job for the last three years and working at the office in the media department and engaging there, I have to continually remind myself that it had better be changing my life just as much as I wanted to change anybody else's life. And it better be motivating me to do what God has put in my hands and in your hands. We don't have to make vain claims of exclusivity to develop a deep and enduring conviction that we hold a valuable and precious message for mankind. The true gospel. We don't have to think of ourselves as the only ones, in a sense, kind of like Elijah, in order to have the passion for the world. That what we believe and what we have is important for people, for the whole world, certainly, to think on that scale, but also be humble enough to deal with the one individual, the two or the seven or eight, that may come to engage us at a personal level, wherever and however that may might be. We've got to believe that we have the true message.

And it is that message that can change the world. And it will. In Acts 17, there's an interesting passage that I like to turn to, to show the fullness of the message of the gospel and the impact that it has. In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul was making his way down the Greek coast. Beginning in verse 1, he came to Thessalonica for three consecutive sabbats.

He reasoned with the Jews in the synagogue. Verse 2. And in verse 3, as he taught, Luke gives us the essence of his message. He was explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ, the one prophesied from all the scriptures. This Jesus, the one born in Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth. This Jesus is the one who lived and died, rose from the dead, and that I preach to you is the prophesied Messiah, the Christ.

This is the message that he gave them. Some were persuaded. A great multitude of the Greeks and a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas. But opposition got stirred up in verse 5 by evil men.

And they had to deal with that. And they and the members, some of the members, want to mention here in verse 6, were drugged out as a result of the mob attack.

They came and they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out that those who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Those who have turned the world upside down have come here too. In these very few verses, we have the fullness of the expression of the message of the gospel. We see that Paul was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, who had to die and be raised again according to the Scriptures. And he was also preaching a message of the coming kingdom of God, which is what we have embodied in our own mission statement, that we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. Because as this mob said, these who have turned the world upside down have come here also. And they've been harbored by Jason, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there's another King Jesus.

The only way they could have said that is because Paul was preaching about the gospel, a message about the coming kingdom of God that would usurp the kingdom of Caesar.

So you see, here's my point, you see the fullness of the expression right here in these two verses. Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. They go together. They're inseparable.

As someone once said, they're two sides of one coin, two sides of one message, which is the gospel, sometimes even called the gospel of God by Paul in Romans chapter 1.

The gospel of God, the message that God has. And that's what we are teaching. That's what we are giving. And to be blunt, what we're doing is not to turning our world today upside down.

If they drug me out or Mr. Hargrove out in the streets because of what we would say, we they might not say that. We're still pretty small. But nonetheless, it is a powerful message that is a message that does turn the world upside down. But for you and I, as we look at it, it has to also turn our world upside down and inside out. And thereby give us passion, understanding, meaning, conviction, courage to get out of bed every day, to do our job, to go about our daily living and our daily life, most of all.

Our continual relationship with God, with the Father, and to be living a godly life in this present world. And that's the challenge that's before us. And we all know at times how difficult and taxing that challenge can be. But we're all together continuing to do it.

It is central to our church, to our existence, to our identity, if you will.

At some point, it becomes a part of your identity, and you can't imagine doing anything else. You can't imagine believing anything else. You can't imagine supporting or being a part of anything else, other than a message that gives help for today and hope for tomorrow and helps people to understand a great purpose for life. And it's a challenge, and it's an increasing challenge in a world that is increasingly secular and tuned out to what we have to say in terms of a message about the kingdom. But nonetheless, it is still working, and we are making disciples.

And we must be like the other prophet Isaiah, who in Isaiah chapter 6 has this vision of the temple of God in Isaiah chapter 6. You might just turn there. We'll look at that just briefly. Isaiah 6, when the prophet had a vision of the temple, time of King of Ziah.

Isaiah 6, beginning in verse 1. And in this vision, one of the visions of the throne of God, like we read in the prophets. And the angels flying and shouting, holy, holy, holy, verse 3.

And the whole earth is filled with His glory. And voices that shook the temple to its foundations in verse 4. And the entire building was filled with smoke. And as Isaiah saw this, he said, it's all over. I'm doomed. I'm a sinful man. I have filthy lips. I live among a people with filthy lips. And yet I've seen the King, the Lord of heaven's armies. And a seraphim flew to me with a burning coal, touched my lips and said, see, this coal has touched your lips, your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven. And then I heard a voice asking in verse 8, whom shall I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?

Whom will I send to this people? And the previous verses had already talked about just how challenging a job that would be to go to a people who were stiff-necked and didn't want to hear the message from God. And Isaiah says here in verse 8, he said, here I am, send me, send me. And then God says, okay, you'll go, but they'll not understand. They'll not learn very much.

They'll plug their ears, but you go. And Isaiah did. It's interesting. This is the passage that Paul quote or Christ quotes in Matthew 13, the parable of the sower and the seed. He quotes this passage out of Isaiah to talk about the sowing of seed of the gospel in our age and in our time. Some seed falls on the rocky ground. Some falls on hard earth. Some falls and springs up a little bit, but then cares of life take it away. And then some actually bears fruit 30, 40, 60 fold.

And he quotes this passage out of Isaiah to show how challenging it is as the sowing of the seeds of the gospel are done. But in every age and at every time there is fruit that is being born.

There are disciples that are being made for all my 50 plus years in the church.

There have been those who have been fired and inspired and motivated, encouraged and enthused with the vision of the kingdom of God, the vision of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God. They've given their lives to this. And many of them I see sitting here in this room today who have committed and endured and stayed with that job. You have not given in to discouragement, even when there were times an opportunity to be discouraged. You have not lost your zeal, even when there have been times and people who may have disappointed you. You didn't lose your zeal.

You have not lost your love, even when troubles and division have ripped at your heart. You have not lost your love for God, the Father, Jesus Christ, his Son, for the brethren, and for the message, the true message of the gospel. You have loved the truth, even when it was mocked, in your face, or by society at large. And you have kept your eyes on God's purpose in your life.

When it would have been easier to walk away, to go back to another life, to go back into society and whatever it was that you came from or came out of and let the cares of this world choke out the fruit that has been born in your life, you have remained faithful. And you have born fruit, some 30, some 40, and some 60. And you have done that. And I am thankful that you have.

We are all thankful together, I think, for one another. When I, we just had our national day of thanksgiving and I know that you gave thanks for many things in your life, another year, family, health, job, whatever it may have been. I give thanks for you. We do collectively give thanks for all of God's people, but for your faithfulness, for what you have continued to support. I am continually thankful for that. And for those of us who work together, day by day, every day, as part of our actual job of working in the church and in my area of working with the media, I can say a big thank you for your support. Not only financially, but for your your prayers, for your encouragement. I will tell you that as one who has worked on the frontline of producing the media content in recent years, as I've had a privilege to do, the encouragement that we get is from you, the members. When we go out, like here today, or at the Feast of Tabernacles, when any of us go out, Peter Eddington and Gary and Steve and Rudy and Clint and the guys that work in the media, and Scott Ashley and the print and all aspects of it. And we not only engage with our membership, but we see new people who have become a part of the church because of the efforts of preaching the gospel. And we receive those bits of encouragement that, hey, I've watched this, or I read this article, or, you know, I'm able to research this on the internet site that is just packed with information. I appreciate it. People, members, and new people especially, to see that. It's all encouraging. I am very thankful for that encouragement, and it does help us to get back into, you know, on Monday morning and go at it and write another script, write another article, put up another posting on the internet, and do the job that we've been given with the tools and resources. So thank you. Thank you for that. It is most encouraging. But to be able to just see a slice of it here in Columbus, or as I had the privilege in a section of Canada in recent weeks, to see that the church at work is encouraging, and to see that we are making disciples, and to see that the church that Christ is putting together, the church that Jesus Christ is the living head of, is producing fruit, is encouraging. And when I see that, and I'm able to communicate that wherever I have the opportunity, it helps us understand that the church that we are part of is going to prevail. It is going to continue, and it will endure to the end, and Christ is going to finish His work through those that He has called and is putting together. And it makes me realize just how strong, courageous, convicted, and committed the people of God must be to become a part of the church that Jesus Christ is going to marry. I asked the question at the beginning, what type of church will Jesus Christ marry? Well, in Revelation 19, we read kind of the end of the conclusion at that moment in Revelation 19, verse 6.

And I've heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thunderings say, hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. The Father is bringing His purpose about and to pass, and He's purposed it all through Christ, who was slain before the foundation of the world, and it is being brought to pass, and He does reign through it all.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

The type of church that Christ is going to marry is a church that has endured through the ages, composed of people who have stood the test and prevailed, and not been overcome by life, the world, by Satan, or the gates of the grave, but have stood strong and endured.

That's the type of person Jesus Christ wants to marry, one with a little bit of backbone that will endure to the end.

So when we think of it that way, the message that we have, the true message of the gospel, is a motivating and energizing message that is enough to help us to be about our Father's business, making disciples, teaching people as we have been commanded, and in the end, fit to be a part of this scene of a church that has made herself ready.

And that will be the type of church that Jesus Christ will marry.