Success in building a church depends on several things many of which first fall upon the pastor. For a church to be built up in an area, there must first be a man of God to hear the call for that area and answer the call to give himself to it. He must, like the children of Israel, make a covenant with the land and put his roots down and claim the promises of God. He must choose to build the church on an Apostolic foundation and not be willing to compromise truth. He must also, after God has helped remove the first major barriers, then find the key that will bring about the plan of God for his unique situation.

At each of these steps, the pastor cannot move on until the saints duplicate his efforts. After the pastor hears and answers the call of God, so then must people answer the call of God to live right and be a part of the church. After the pastor puts roots down and dedicates himself to the area and church, so must the saints make that same decision to not go anywhere else, but to see the harvest in this place. When the pastor begins building an Apostolic foundation, then people must embrace the Apostolic doctrine wholeheartedly and refuse to compromise. The people must join in and fight against the first major barriers to the work of God being done and then they must follow the pastor in implementing the key to revival in their particular area.

As a church, I feel that towards the end of last year and now at the beginning of this new year, we stand with only the last step undone. I'm called of God to preach the word and I've answered that call. You have heard the call of God to "come ye out and be ye separate" and most of you have obeyed that call. I'm not going anywhere and most of you feel the same way. If God is going to move in my life, it will be here in Medina Valley Christian Worship in Castroville, Texas. That's just how I feel.

We have also laid an Apostolic foundation that we refuse to compromise and many of you feel as strongly about that as I do. We have seen the first, initial barriers to God moving in our church fall: we have a freedom of worship, of the Spirit, of the Word, and an Apostolic liberty in our church. And so I believe with all of my heart, that we stand with only one more step to take in order to see the harvest that God truly wants us to have and that is we must find the unique key to that will bring about the move of God in this particular town.

Tonight's message will be different because I am using it to introduce to you our new outreach program that we will hopefully be implementing this coming month. I want to show you the scriptural principles why it works, and I pray and hope that this will be the key to unlocking the harvest that God has for us. Our "bread" ministry was close to what we needed to do and it got us headed in the right direction, but it was lacking in several areas. I want to point those out to you and how that we are going to change them.

Before we move on, let me say that our vision is a new church building next door full of hundreds of people from this area full of the Holy Ghost and praising and serving God. And then we will move up from there. God has confirmed and reconfirmed this vision and I fully believe that it is the will of God. The board and most of you stand with me on this and there is nothing wrong with desiring it. We do not want a new building just for the sake of having a new building, but we need a new building. This one cannot hold the harvest that God has for us. Sometime we think that we are comfortable on Sunday mornings but we forget that we have all of the children and kidz praise workers next door is why we have the room. We need a much bigger building if we are to have the harvest that God wants us to have.

But I want to be practical here. We have the land to build and we have the equity to build, and we have the desire to build, but we do not have the steady month to month tithing and offering to support the building once it is here. The scriptures say count the cost and so I'm being realistic. We will have to have much better financial support monthly to see it come to pass. Don't worry, I'm not asking you for money or commitments tonight. The overwhelming majority of you are faithful with your tithes and your offerings and other financial commitments and that's all God asks for. If you don't pay your tithes faithfully, then know that you are in the minority in this church and you might as well join in! I'm not going to ask you to give more of your income. Rather, I'm going to ask the church to act in such a way that God blesses you with a greater income and just ask you to keep paying your tithes and offerings! I fully believe that the way that we will see the vision of a harvest and a new building is not through somebody new moving here, but rather through God increasing His blessings to the church that is already here! It is the will of God for you to be blessed financially because it is the will of God for us to have a harvest and it will take money for us to realize our dreams! If I asked for a truthful response to "if God blessed you much greater financially, would you be willing to still pay tithes and up your offerings to match that greater financial blessing?," then most of you would raise your hands and say absolutely. So here we go...

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"How am I going to be blessed greater, preacher?" I'm glad you asked, because I want to give you a scriptural answer and one that I think just might be the key for unlocking a harvest in our particular area. I'm referring to a key concept in the Bible that many churches ignore and that most of us have not truly obeyed. What I'm talking about is the principles of blessing the poor. Bread ministry almost hit the nail on the head because it got us focusing on the right audience. I believe that God will bless this church beyond it's wildest dreams if we will simply have the faith to step out and obey what God has commanded concerning those who are less fortunate. Let's look at some scriptures and I will use the English Standard Version so that it is fairly easy to understand what the scriptures are saying:

We can begin with our texts:

This was a commandment of Jesus just as important as all of the other ones. He said when you give a dinner or a banquet, don't just invite your friends or relatives or rich neighbors, but rather invite the poor, the crippled, and the down and out. Now, I think that we ought to invite everyone to church and to fellowship with us. And I think that doctors and lawyers and our families need to hear about Jesus and what He can do for them. But the truth is that when we come to feast at church on God's Word and Spirit, most often we neglect the poor and the hurt and the down and out. We'd prefer to invite someone who can drive themselves and doesn't need a ride afterwards. We'd prefer to invite someone on the same "economic" class as ourselves. And so we are often guilty of avoiding this commandment of Jesus for the sake of convenience.

I chose this story as my text because of what Jesus said. He said when you bless someone, bless someone who cannot repay you. Because when you do, you will be "repaid at the resurrection of the just." When you give gifts to the well-to-do, then you are simply gaining favor for a possible pay back in this life, but when you give to the poor who have no way to ever repay you what you have given, then Jesus will repay the poor man's bill at the resurrection. One of the surest ways to store up "treasure in heaven" is to give to the poor.

God watches over people who are not well off and takes great notice of how others treat them. This is because in God's eyes all men and women are equal and economic rank has nothing to do with it.

What is the price of one soul? That's an impossible question to answer, but if you could put a worth on it, then know that a poor man's soul is worth just as much as a rich man's. I am reminded of a story that I read recently of a minister traveling through the streets of San Diego. A beggar approached the man and his wife and asked for money and the man ignored him and wouldn't talk to him. When he drove off, his wife said "I feel sorry for that man." And the minister replied, "he's had his chance." And a few minutes later the wife replied, "yes, but some people have had fewer chances than others." We are blessed today, but we have had many chances to be blessed and some are not as fortunate. It's something to think about.

Listen to what the Bible says about poor people and righteousness:

A righteous man understands that a poor man has some rights. A poor man deserves to hear the Gospel just as much as a rich man. A poor man deserves to be loved and treated with respect just as a richer man does. Even though it is not often the case in America, I want to remind you that a man's worth is not in what he possesses in houses and cars and wealth, but in whose image he was created. All men, whatever race or background, whatever economic status or political bent, all men and women are created in the image of the God that we worship. John said something about "if you can't love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you haven't?" Jesus said, "that you will be known by your love one to another." And so understand that God watches very carefully how we respond to the poor. Listen to what the scriptures say:

If you want to insult God then insult the poor who are made in His image. But if you want to honor God then be generous to them. We must allow God to change us until we treat the poor with as much respect and dignity that we would give the very rich. This was a problem in the early church that James addressed very bluntly:

As a church, we can show no partiality as to people who walk through these doors and who become a part of our family. It doesn't matter their skin color. It doesn't matter their cultural background. It doesn't matter how they are dressed or what they drive. It doesn't matter where they've come from. All that matters is whether or not they obey the Word of truth! I don't mind having a bunch of Baptists, Catholics, Muslims, Methodists, Charismatic, Buddhist, Atheistic, Pentecostal, Jehovah Witness, Mormons, or whatever in our church, as long as they obey the Apostolic doctrine and get a revelation of who Jesus is and what He wants them to do! If they obey God's Word and are born into God's kingdom, then who cares where they came from? They are family!

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I think that reaching out to the poor in our community could very well be the key to unlocking the harvest that God has for us. Let me give you six scriptural reasons why I believe this:

Those who give to the poor "will not want!" The NIV says that they "will lack nothing!" If you want to be blessed and have everything good that you desire, then you must give to the poor!

This scripture reveals to us why Proverbs 28:27 is true, because when you give to the poor, God repays you for it as if you had given it to Him!

So scripturally if you want to be "blessed," have "the Lord repay you for giving," and "lack nothing" then giving to the poor is the solution!

The last part of the last chapter of the book of Proverbs is well known as describing in detail a Godly woman. If you, ladies, want to see how you measure up in God's sight, read this chapter! But I want to point out one of the such characteristics found in verse twenty:

Helping the poor and needy is a characteristic of a Godly woman! It is not preached about as much, but the Bible also has a chapter detailing the characteristics of a Godly man, the 112th Psalm. Men, if you want to see how you measure up to God's standard, read this chapter. Again, I want to mention just one part of it, verse 9 and 10:

"He has given to the poor!" And because of this "his horn" or his authority is exalted in honor and his blessing is such that the wicked get angry about it! To be the men and women that God wants us to be, it is clear that we must give to the poor.

All of us can afford to be more like Jesus Christ, the only perfect human being who ever lived. When John the Baptist was in prison, he had a moment of doubt and sent some servants to ask Jesus if He truly was the "Messiah." Jesus' answer was this:

We talk a lot about the miracles that were performed, but Jesus also went out of His way for the poor to hear the good news preached to them!

And then when the disciples saw Jesus whisper something to Judas Iscariot at the Last Supper, and Judas leave the table, the disciples did not think anything of it:

The point is many, many times, they had seen Jesus whisper something to Judas and he go buy some food, or go give to the poor! Jesus -- who didn't even have a job or steady income -- was in the habit of frequently blessing the poor!

When Paul first met with the apostles after his conversion, we find this description of their meeting:

They turned Saul/Paul and Barnabas loose to preach to the Gentiles but only asked that they "remember the poor!" The apostles cared for the poor!

If we are to obey all of Jesus' commandments, then we have to obey the following scriptures:

This was a unique situation, this young man was acting like he was perfect and lacked nothing, and yet Jesus pointed out that despite his obedience to the laws of God, he trusted in his wealth rather than God day to day. The remedy was to give the money to the poor and to follow Jesus. It is not the will of God for everyone to do this, but certainly as we follow Jesus, we must be willing to give to the poor out of the abundance of what God has blessed us with!

You don't have to read very far to realize that this parable is about the kingdom of God and represents the household of God. The servant had already gone to the well-to-do people and they refused to come and so the commandment was to go to the poor and the down and out!

The scriptures say this about Jesus:

When Jesus' parents dedicated Him at the temple in Jerusalem, they offered turtle doves, the sacrifice of those too poor to afford an entire lamb. Jesus was born to poor parents and never experienced the niceties of life. The only time that He saw the inside of a palace here on earth was at His final trials before Pilate!

I wonder how many of us would recognize Jesus if He came to earth the second time as He did the first? The book of Hebrews says that angels do often come to earth in this way:

And that's a fun and cool thought to think about, but the truth is that Jesus shows Himself to us everyday and we too often by pass Him. Listen to this final block of scripture:

"As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me!" We must -- to minister to Jesus Christ -- reach out to the less fortunate than we!

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And so I close this message with the following thoughts of our previous major church outreach program, our Bread ministry.

Our Bread ministry was excellent for the following reasons:

1. It got us focused in the direction of the poor.

2. It got people involved in witnessing who before had not the courage to do so.

3. It changed our name in the community to a church with the reputation of caring enough to try to make a difference and not just have church among ourselves.

But Bread ministry was deficient and lacking in the following areas:

1. It only met their temporary physical hunger and ignored many other dilemmas of their lives.

2. Others donated and paid for the stuff that we were giving out, therefore others received most of the blessings of giving to the poor.

3. It did not provide for much personal, one-on-one contact with families at where they live day to day.

4. It seemed to minister more to the passerby rather than the local community

5. It was dependent upon the actions and whims of another group of people, our suppliers.

And so in February, we will begin a program that takes the good points of the Bread ministry and corrects the bad points. Let us hope that proves the key for God's will to be done in our assembly!