Four Unnamed Winners
by Joe Beasley
1995 · The Pentecostals of Alexandria, Alexandria, LA
Kind: conference session
Scripture: Mark 2:1-5

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/joe-beasley--four-unnamed-winners
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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praise what a mighty powerful spirit in this place tonight come on let's pick it up a little bit and give the Lord praise hallelujah oh my god I believe I'm at a very distinct advantage being in this pulpit tonight I you know some neat things happen from time to time and I had a neat thing happen today I was disguised and I was standing in McDonald's and someone was looking through the brochure telling who was preaching this meeting and the two persons were quite impressed with the lineup until they came to the name Joe Joe who at because of the times where did he get his certification well I want you to know something I may be a foreigner and I may not be very well known to you but I want to tell you that the same blood that cleansed you cleanse me and the same God that called you called me and the same God that anoints you anoint me I'm believing God for a visitation of his power is majesty in this service tonight would you put your hands together one more time I feel like praising him wonderful leadership in this meeting I believe this has been one of the most if not the most powerful meeting that I have ever attended I will read to you now from the Gospel of Mark I will read to you from the second chapter and I will read the first five verses and again Jesus entered into Capernaum after some days and it was noised that he was in the house and straightway many were gathered together in so much that there was no room to receive them no not so much as about the door and he preached the word unto them hallelujah and there came on to him bringing one sick of the palsy which was borne or carried a four and when they could not come nigh unto him for the crowd they uncovered the roof where he was and when they had broken it up they let down the bed wherein the sick of palsy lay when Jesus saw their faith he said unto the sick of palsy son thy sins be forgiven they I discovered something here it didn't take a lot of talent or ability to discover it but I have discovered that these tremendous four people of

faith are unnamed in the fourth verse they could not come nigh on to him for the press they uncovered the roof where he was and when they had broken up they let down the bed they-they-they I'm going to be sharing with you a message tonight simply entitled four unnamed winners good winners don't have to have a big name they just have to have a big God fathering the precious authoritative name of Jesus lengthy unction and the authority and the power of the Holy Ghost set me at liberty to share the Word of God anoint this congregation now to receive in the name of Jesus we pray and the church said amen you can be seated I have determined and made up my mind that I want to be a winner with God there was something inside of these four persons that when they looked at this man that was sick with palsy they decided that something could be done about his situation if they could get him to Jesus I am suggesting to you tonight that the first thing that winners have is a vision you see when this man who was so sick and who was in such a deplorable condition the disease the dreaded disease had already rendered him his limbs totally useless that's evidenced by the fact that they had to carry him it would be bothersome to carry him but they realized that no matter the critical deplorable condition if we can only get the man to Jesus something will happen when we view a sin-sick world we have to understand and see people not for what they are but for what they can become we need to get people to Jesus ladies and gentlemen if they need healing bring them to the healer if they need house Shepherd if they need guidance bring them to the Good Shepherd if they're lonely bring them to the friend that sticketh closer than a brother if they need peace bring them to the Prince of Peace if their names no good then bring them to someone who will bring them into a family in which the whole heaven and earth is named if they need a shelter bring them to the rock in the weary land if they need a foundation give them the chief Cornerstone if they need salvation give them the Savior if they need deliverance give them the deliverer if they need something that will last give them the everlasting father if they need God give them the Almighty God give them Jesus if they need a defense give them the Lion of the tribe of Judah if they don't have any roots give them the root in the offspring of David and if they're light life is in darkness give them the light of the world and in third Thursday give them the water to drink and if they don't know the way give them bring them to Jesus he knows the way and if they don't know the truth bring them to Jesus he is the truth and if they're dead in trespasses and sins

bring them to Jesus for he is the life now I feel ok I have felt absolutely terrible all week if you ever have me do one of these deals again don't put me at the end of it squeeze me in before anybody gets here or something I think we need to understand how impressionable children and young people are there's some things that I learned as a child as a little boy that I've never forgotten I was born and raised in a preacher's home and that was back before the days of delegated authority and I'm glad that my dad mum got to be here at this meeting but my dad is of the old school and the pastor did everything and we were always the first ones to get church which I didn't enjoy and we were the last ones leaving the church which I didn't enjoy the part in the middle was okay sometimes and I remember one morning I was seated in the auditorium all by myself waiting for the first people to arrive the first people that arrived were bona fide certified apostolic they'd been in the way for a long time I was only 8 years old Niners to death they came in and took their place very proud of their humility very proud of their holiness and they took a seat the church began to fill up and after some time there was a couple of folks came they were visitors I knew that was good do you know that's good and these visitors sat down beside the sanctified sanctimonious humble certified Apostolic couple this couple somehow or another were not prepared for whatever smell these sinners had on them the smell of tobacco or alcohol I don't know what it was I just sitting there watching and all of a sudden I saw this lady's nose going here was this woman and then she whispered something to her husband and they got up from the pew and moved leaving the visitors I was 8 years old and I was I'm still ugly about it I'm still ugly that kind of stuff still makes me ugly what is the church for what was it built or I'll tell you if we're not here to welcome sinners we need to shut the thing down you can be seated be seated there were many accusations that were leveled against Jesus some of them unfounded untrue and some of them very true two in particular were true they said this man is a friend of sinners and secondly said he eats with publicans and sinners I wonder if anybody has ever accused you preachers of that I wonder if you were charged with being a friend of sinners and eating with publicans and sinners if there would be enough evidence to convict you we're

real good at doing our stuff in the church but we're not much good at doing our stuff on the streets I'll tell you one thing I'm from a cold country but I don't feel cold right now it got so cold up there the other day thirty foot three below zero that the commentator on the radio said that the rabbits were towing the squirrels to get them jump-started that's cold honey that's cold you know we are so fixed up and we've got so much finery now and I know I'm gonna get in a lot of trouble and I probably won't be invited back but I'm just joe whoever anyway so what difference does that make you're the one that had to worry about the reputation I don't have one how they say that be seated oh my lord set a watch before my lips I feel mighty anointed in that's dangerous you know sometimes what we lack in jewelry we make up and costly array I'll tell you what you need to do with some of those brand name shirts and suits you need to get some of those fancy jackets off and you need to take those brand-name shirts and take them right down and wrap them around the center that's dirty and filthy and tell them about the love of God that's what you need to do the business of the church is obeying the first and the last command of Jesus and if you want to be a winner then you're going to be willing to touch the lost and I'll tell you what preacher friend real success is an ability in the pulpit it's the ability to win the lost that is success ladies and gentlemen let me tell you something you won't get your name blazed in lights for being a soul winner you may get your name in the in all the books for being a good preacher but I'll tell you we need more people interested in a lost world than preaching good sermons you may be seated I'm going to run out of time Jeff what do you do man how do you do that you say man you're really having a high tonight not near as high as the high I had two or three weeks ago I apologized to my church a few weeks ago wept before them and apologized for not being a personal soul winner oh I've got a few names I can list to make it look good and I can tell some stories and make it look good but I am NOT and have not been a personal soul winner and I decided I'd do something about it

and I went with a couple assistant ministers to a little clinic they were having on soul-winning just a little deal to show you some techniques for getting through the door and and I know some of you don't think it's right to nevermind I anyway I wanted a little sign from the Lord if I was on the right track we're way down a little town Alabama somewhere and sitting in a Shoney's restaurant and we'd memorized this little outline kind of how to present the gospel to sinners that was tough for me memorizing something to present to sinners now presenting to you people is no problem and I so we're sitting in this restaurant and the waiter comes over and and one of the young assistants that was with us he decided I think I'll try this so he went through the little procedure and all of a sudden the guy said man he said I can't believe you fellas are here said I'm hungry for God and then and then and then he was just being trained he'd only been there three weeks and the lady came over that was kind of in charge of his activities and she came over and we said well this is the end of the conversation she said what are you talking about said oh we're talking about how God can change lives she said I'd like to hear that and to make a long story short before we finished that man was down on his knees by the table repenting of his sins the lady was repenting of her sins we have their names their addresses to send them information about baptism and the infilling of the Holy Ghost I'll tell you what friends the highs not preaching a conference to the eyes winning the laws and some of you need to wake up Samia just wanna Papa there's a world out there that needs the gospel you may be seated let me move quickly the real winners the on name winners what did they do the Bible says that they carried the man briefly intercession will bring people to God we can go prayer can go where we cannot go I said prayer can go where we cannot go and the real winners are intercessors but they don't get their names published in The Herald life is so great because it's a process of learning but I really blew it one time I had a new girl in the church just 14 years old and and and one night I saw her down there just just crying and praying and I thought this poor girl doesn't understand that the joy of the Lord is her strength so I go down and I leaned over the Pew and I get her head up off the Pew and I say honey you know you're a new convert and you need to just be joyful about God and salvation and that little girl looked up at me tears run right down her face and taught me a lesson she said pastor I do have the joy of the Lord I'm thinking inside you could have fooled me she said I have the joy of the Lord but my dad's not saved my dad's not saved she said last weekend we couldn't find my dad he went on a drunk and we don't know where he was and I think he's going to be gone again this weekend I I'd like for God to save my daddy and preacher if you don't mind I'm going to just keep crying and praying until my daddy gets saved about three weeks later brother tinny saw a big strapping man come walking through the door he'd never been to church before and he came sat down preached a little message gave a older call he walked up the front repented of his sins talked to him he set the time for water baptism just before he left he shook my hand he said thanks preacher but I want to tell you something I'm not here because of you I'm not here because

of your church and I'm not here because of your sermon but he said the other night at 3 o'clock in the morning I woke up and he said I was walking down the hallway by my little girl's room and he said I heard a noise inside and he said I heard my little girl call my name I heard her crying and they're saying God saved my daddy he said preacher I want you to know why I'm here it's because my daughter prayed for me and let me tell you her name is unknown but she's a winner with God because her daddy is in the church I think it's time we produce some real winners and not just a bunch of surface malarkey it's time to have real church and affect the lost world dinner winners have a vision winners learn how to pray and winners learn how to cooperate so that that man was carried by for who wouldn't have got there in time I'm not going to spend a long time in this because I could medal but I wonder how much we have to agree on to carry the man of palsy to Jesus I wonder how much we really have to agree on to rescue the perishing and care for the dying it's a good thing this buddy wasn't sick in our time leaders stood by the foot of the caught fighting over theology while Jesus went somewhere else I'm not preaching against sound doctrine I believe in sound doctrine but I'll tell you what friends the best cure for the ills of any church or organization is soul-winning Oh winning somebody put your hands together all the way in the balcony why don't we go ahead and give God a little praise I'm preaching about winners here tonight you might not know who they are but God does I said God knows who they are you can be seated thank you winners know how to cooperate they're not one-man bands let's hurry these unnamed winners had determination I mean after all of their efforts and their vision and all of their work they get to where Jesus is and they can't get near him and with most of us that would have been the conclusion of the story we tried but he will Leia here hope Jesus sees you on the way out god bless you man we really tried maybe you can try like bartimaeus and cry real loud or something have a good day these guys were weird they were unorthodox they didn't care what anybody thought they said we're going to give this man to Jesus and we don't care what anybody thinks about us if part boy I'm in trouble now we I mean if they I had to go to a committee or a board and I'm a board member so mellow out if they had to go through some kind of committee they want to never got permission to rip a roof off a house second can you imagine the preacher

coming in so I got this plan you got a plan what's your plan well we're going to climb on a roof and just tear the thing apart and the District Board says good idea all in favor aye are I carried go and do it son have a good revival I doubt it I think the best we'd get a delayed decision at best all set by any means save some when you're going to pull people from the burning you really lose all part of what other people are picking if they're dying the flame you got a rescue there we haven't got time to talk about it we need to start doing it doing it doing it I'm going to give you this real quick I'm going to try to run this by you as quickly as I can because I felt like the Lord wanted me to share this real quick nearly six years ago I mentioned this once at the General Conference I was very sick in my body I had undergone what they told me would be routine surgery which wasn't so routine and I had serious complications from that surgery and I I was well I was just sick and high fever and they were filling my body with morphine I had infection and along about the seventh night of my stay in the hospital there was sent a messenger of Satan to buff at me very quickly that night as I was tossing and turning on that bed in a cold sweat under the effects of maximum doses of morphine I felt a strange and weird presence enter that hospital room I'd never felt anything like it it wasn't hideous it was sort of like an angel of light and then I heard a voice this is as real as the night I got the Holy Ghost and the voice said you're a smart young man do you really think that God keeps all of his promises and I thought and I'm laying there and I'm sweating and I'm tossing and I'm turning and I don't know if I'm conscious or on condo I remember saying was all the promises of God are yeah in a man then he said where's the god of power that you preach about if he had any power you wouldn't suffer like this he said I'll tell you who's got the power you give up your ministry and I'll have you out of here tomorrow and after much struggle I said no I cannot give up the call of God it turned from an angel of light to a hideous all-out attack and he told me if you will not give it up then I will get you this attack was for two hours and 15 minutes and in that time he paraded every fallen preacher that I knew in front of me I heard every one of them preach all the way from Jimmy Swaggart to UPC preachers to the guy down the road they all went in front of me and I heard them preaching heard their voices I saw them and they were preaching and then he said to me I got them do you think I can't get you he said if you love your church and you love your family the best thing you can do is quit now because you are going to be embarrassed and at the end of 2 hours and 15 minutes that presence left the room I was totally devastated I felt forsaken of God there was nothing when that presence first came in the room I did what you're supposed to do in Jesus name nothing happened I plead the blood nothing happened I said wow I am

in trouble here at 4 o'clock in the morning I called one of the assistant ministers who I consider a very dear friend and I said please pray for me because I have been forsaken of God I said Pastor you're crazy like you're okay it's okay you're fine I said you're not feeling what I'm feeling man he said I'll come right over I said well don't come right now they'll think something's wrong and he came a few minutes later good man and I sat there and I wept and I wept all these deals all hooked to my arms and I wept and I looked at him and said I'm forsaken of God I couldn't even speak for about twenty minutes and then I thought oh god I can't believe this is happening that night I was in a private room and I reached up that night to turn out the light about eleven o'clock and I remember crying out from my soul god I can't feel you I can't sense you something's happening here but please God don't let that happen again to me tonight what happened last night because I can't stand it just a few minutes later a presence came in the room with which I was very familiar it was the presence of my Jesus oh that I mean I could just go on and on but let me tell you I said Lord where have you been where you been he said I have been here all the time I said no you haven't he said I said I couldn't feel you here he said that is what is wrong with my people they live by feeling and not by faith I said lord I pleaded your blood I called on your name he said that's fine I was I'm right here I said but how could he work me always said I just gave him permission now that might knock your theology on the head but so be it I just know what happened and then I said to the Lord I said Lord I've got a real problem now I said if the enemy is going to get me I would rather resign my church because I don't want to embarrass my church or my family so if he's going to get me let me know and I'll quit and the Lord said I cannot guarantee you that you will not fall you are the only one that can determine that and he said to me the reason that so many ministers Paul is because they cease to being real and at that point I said a mark of determination by the help of God if no one in this world understands me I want to be real with God is there anybody that wants to be real with God in this house tonight you can be seated I've got to come to a close now my times up and I went over and did this and brother Anthony said okay man go you know he's such a good guy these are named winners while vision intercessors haha hallelujah determination well let's conclude let's let's get the man healed here we don't want to leave them still outside the door so they did their aunt unorthodox thing and ripped off the roof I love it I just I just love it all right whoo that just who I love that

because I've met so many people that they're absolutely paralyzed by what everybody else thinks they can't do anything in their church you know you may not a cop give me a break are you call of God give me a pray stand up and be a man Jesus is down here teaching a Bible study teaching the word preaching a word and in his word their spirit and life and he's teaching the word and all of a sudden man there's activity on the roof and I mean he looks up and all he sees coming down is the bottom side of a caught and then that caught gets everybody kind of I mean where there was no room they made room and in this man just here he is in front of Jesus and the Lord looks up and he sees eight beady eyes staring down in I want to tell you something those four guys didn't have one doubt that if they got the man that far he would be healed and I'm absolutely convinced if you will do something God will honor you - she will be seated I got five minutes several years ago in the country of Kenya Africa there was a young teenage girl who heard about the wonderful world of Pentecost and decided I will go faith was in her heart because you see the Lord looked up and the Bible says he saw their faith I don't know if the man had any or had any ability to have any that means your faith can affect other people this young girl in Kenya she told her mom she said mom I want to go over to the Pentecostal meeting said no I forbid you said if you ever go you will no longer be called my daughter and that teenage girl one night so hungry for God took her chances and went to the meeting at that meeting she was filled with the power of the Holy Ghost and when she arrived home there was one little little case sitting outside the door and her mom met her at the door and said where were you she said I was at the Pentecostal meeting and the Lord gave me the Holy Ghost she said you were no longer my daughter she said you take this little case she reached in a little purse and pulled out the equivalent of a nickel handed the nickel to her daughter [name redacted] and said if your God so great let's see how he can take care of you on a nickel and [name redacted] made her way to a boarding school and convinced them to let her work her way through and she worked but every time she went to pray she would burst forth speaking in tongues and in that school they determined that she was possessed of a devil and so they told her you you can't pray like that but every time she went to pray her love for God was overwhelming but in spite of the threat of punishment she would speak in tongues and then they decided they would punish the devil out of her and she was made to scrub brick floors and hallways and her knees were bloodied and her hands were bloodied and calloused and this went on for nearly two years when a new headmistress from America arrived at that school and saw this girl being tortured and punished and said what's happening here and so well she has a devil when she goes to pray she speaks weird languages the lady said I'll talk to her

she called [name redacted] into the office and said young lady what is this I hear about you she said well when I pray I speak in tongues God fill me with the Holy Ghost and that lady from America started to cry she said I am so hungry for that experience [name redacted] could you tell me how to receive it she prayed with the lady I can't remember this part of the story I believe she did receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost but I'm not certain she looked at [name redacted] and said I will pay your way through this school and she did and [name redacted] graduated with a teacher's license and went to teach in the Kenyan school system and decided to go home and visit mama and she walked down the familiar lane and mama came to the door she said [name redacted] I'm really glad to see ya and [name redacted] reached in her little purse and pulled out the nickel and said mama God didn't even need your neck let me close with these statements there's more to that story and maybe another time another place but I had the opportunity of baptizing that lady in Jesus name in Canada and her husband and there's a church organization there that I just visited a year ago and they've rebaptised 10,000 people in the name of Jesus Christ I'll tell you what there's a lot of unnamed winners in this world and you may never meet [name redacted] but she's a winner and we may never meet the intercessors in your charge but they're winners and you may never preach because of the times that you can be a winner god bless