What Every Man Needs To Know - Part III | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter
by Kenneth Carpenter
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: James 4:7-8, 1 Peter 2:21-23, Luke 2:51-52, Matthew 8:5-13, Joshua 24:15, 2 Samuel 3:1, 1 Samuel 15:1-10, 1 Samuel 15:20-30, Acts 9:6

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kenneth-carpenter--what-every-man-needs-to-know-part-iii
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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you'd stand with me tonight let's go right into the word of the lord the book of james chapter number 4 and we'll begin reading at verse 7 and read verses 7 and 8. i want to say to brother daniel rango i want to say to him tonight a great big thank you we had the precious group we affectionately call them the chileans we had them twice in sevierville doing uh brother ben doing a bilingual service and brother dillinger's sister uh her and her husband came and and uh he speaks very little english at all he would enjoy our services say that he enjoyed it but there was no understanding that was coming from that but the first time that brother daniel salinas preached it moved it moved florencio and he then it's a wonderful thing happened we were able to have them to come back last sunday and last sunday god baptized florencio with the holy ghost he came up walking up front god baptized him with the holy ghost and last night before service uh six o'clock uh i normally uh teach brother sister dillinger and brother brandon and sister martha i teach them a search for truth well they brought mandy and florencio last night and it was so wonderful there in that little sunday school classroom i was teaching search for truth and i took brother daniel with me and while i was teaching in english he was interpreting in spanish and to watch the look on florencio's face as truth begin just to light up is a great thing it's a wonderful it was a wonderful thing and i do thank the lord for that james chapter 4 and verse number 7 listen to james submit yourselves therefore to god resist the devil and he will flee from you draw nigh to god and he will draw an eye to you cleanse your hands ye sinners purify your hearts ye double minded i'm going to speak tonight what i feel after a lot of just uh concentrating and meditating upon the need of of the men it's the word submitting to god submitting to god father i love you lord i indeed do thank you for the men of first apostolic church i indeed thank you lord for their love and for their devotion god their their very presence here tonight speaks of their love and devotion to you lord tonight help me to be able lord to teach all of us not just the men god but including myself god how important it is that we have a spirit of submission god to you that we submit lord ourselves to you god i'll give you the praise and the honor and the glory in jesus name we pray amen amen you may be seated thank you men thank you so much james i've often told you that james is my most favorite book in in the bible in the new testament and the reason that james is my favorite book is it's so easy reading the book of james is an easy read you don't have to be a some kind of a scholar you don't have to really read verses three or four times to find out what it means it's it's just practical it's just it's just practical um things such as a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways i mean you don't have to you it's not like the book of revelation you don't have to read about horns and beasts and kings and all of that and try to figure it out it's just so it's such an easy read and again james comes along and he says in verse 7 submit yourselves therefore to god submit yourselves therefore to god resist the devil and he will flee from you draw nigh to god now please notice verse 7 begins with the word submit to god verse 8 begins with the word draw nigh to god these are two different things submitting is not drawing nigh and drawing nigh is not necessarily submitting but we have to have an order and the order is that we first submit ourselves to god now the image here what the word submit means submit means to order yourself under god to voluntarily voluntarily if god has to make you do it it's not submission you you voluntary you voluntarily submit yourself you voluntarily god doesn't hold god doesn't twist your arm behind your back you voluntarily place yourself under the rule of god it has the image that a king has conquered you a king has conquered you and you have surrendered you have surrendered i heard a minister some time ago brother cincotta he said one of the problems with the church today is that used to people talked about i'm surrendered to god and now we talk about i am committed to god and there's a difference in being surrendered to something because if you're surrendered to something you are you are surrendering all of your rights you're surrendering all of your rights but if you're only committed to something you can be committed was to something with part of your heart but not fully surrendered to god so this word submit here is not committed in the way in in the in the way that that you simply have something that you would like to accomplish it is that you have surrendered all of your rights as if a king has conquered you and we should feel that way about god that he has conquered us we have willingly thrown up the white flag we have willingly submitted we have willingly admitted and submitted that we cannot we cannot lead our lives without him so he says in verse 7 submit yourselves therefore to god submit yourselves voluntarily place yourself under the rule of god and then draw nigh to god but don't try to draw nigh to god without being submitted to god because what happens then god begins to resist you it's like oil and water trying to mix if i'm not submitted to god doesn't matter if i try to draw toward god god literally begins to resist me because what god requires first and foremost is that we submit ourselves to him well you know god so wonderful and some of you have ever had have you ever had the uncomfortable unfortunate unpleasing and any other unworth i can use of someone to tell you to do something but they wouldn't do it themselves they they told you what you needed to do but yet they never modeled it for you they never they never became the the model of that they they told you to do it but then when you looked at their lives their lives did not model what they were asking you to do god is so wonderful because god would never ask us to submit ourselves to him unless he would become a man and do the same thing that he's asked us to do to god the man christ jesus submitted himself to god just like god asked us to submit ourselves to him it's found in first peter chapter 2 verse number 21. follow this first peter 2 and verse number 21 for even here unto ye are called because christ also suffered for us what's the would you read with me the next list a few words leaving us a what he suffered leaving us an example that ye should follow in his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth i like verse 23 who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatened not look at these next words but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously what did he do the same thing he's asking you and i to do the man christ jesus submitted himself to god he submitted himself he committed or submitted himself let's look in luke luke chapter 2 verse number 51 it's very important i believe that we'll have an eye-opening experience if we can see that the christ that we love and call on his name would not ask us to do something that he while in the flesh didn't practice himself luke 2 51 and he went down with them speaking of jesus he went down with him them and came to nazareth and was subject unto them but his mother kept all these things in her heart and jesus increased in wisdom see this is the humanity part god can't increase in wisdom but the man christ jesus did and increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with god and man now go back up to verse 51 for a moment because i want to show you we often won't increase in our lives but submission must go before increase notice in verse 51 jesus christ is 12 years old now grant you he is 12 years old in the flesh but in the in the spirit he is the eternal god he didn't become god at his baptism like some teach some teach he became god at his baptism he didn't become god at his baptism he was god at the very conception he was almighty god and he was almighty god the baby lying in the manger was a baby according to the flesh but as god he was the eternal god lying wrapped in infant flesh in a manger so now look at this at 12 years old they lose him in jerusalem they go to jerusalem to celebrate passover and his mother and father thought he was in the crowd they traveled in a big band and as the crowd left jerusalem to go back to nazareth jesus stayed behind well some time later they realized that jesus wasn't with them and they went searching for him the bible says they found him in the temple and when they came up on him his mother said do you not know that your father and i have been seeking for you sorrowfully don't you know we've been looking for you and listen to this 12 year old boy how is it that you look for me did you not know that i must be about my father's business well now that would have made sense if they had found jesus in a carpenter shop if they had found him in a woodworking shop that would have made some sense because well his father her supposed father was a carpenter by trade but they didn't find him in a carpenter shop they found him in the temple setting among the rabbis answering questions and asking them questions and he said how is it that you sought for me didn't you know i would be about my father's business and then the bible says he left with them and he went back to nazareth with them and submitted himself to them think about that i don't think anybody would debate with me tonight that that 12 year old boy knew more than mary and joseph put together i think anybody would stand saying no no that 12 year old boy knew more than all of nazareth put together knew that 12 year old boy had knowledge that his his mother and supposed father hadn't even scratched the surface but do you know having more knowledge does not mean didn't mean to him that he wasn't going to submit as a as a 12 year old boy he submitted himself to his mother and his supposed father and after the submission of verse 51 we have verse 52 and jesus increased in wisdom wisdom is being able to see things of god it's been able to to look ahead it's been able to plan ahead it's it's able having wisdom is knowing the consequences of your actions good or bad it's knowing today that if i do this today i can be assured tomorrow this will happen that's called wisdom a lack of wisdom is to live any away and then when bad comes you can't figure out why bad has come the bible says that he increased in wisdom he began to see things on down the road he began to understand things brothers i believe with all of my heart that if we will submit ourselves to god that there are some things that we battle with in the spiritual realm that we would begin to see so clearly if we would first just submit ourselves to god you can't have it the other way around you can't say well god if you'll show it to me i'll submit myself to you it doesn't work that way you have got to first submit yourself to god surrender to him as if he has conquered you and then it's amazing god will begin to shine the light down the road and show you things that are going to come to pass he increased i would like for you to notice this i made a note of this you cannot when you get wisdom wisdom is in your mind wisdoms in your mind which i would i would write down wisdom invisible but notice notice this how 52 is worded jesus increased in wisdom you can't see that and stature that's his height you can see that now notice jesus increased in wisdom can't see wisdom and stature you can see that but then he not only increased in wisdom you can't see it and stature you can but he also increased with favor with god you can't see that favor with man you can see that favor with god is an inside contentment favor with man is seeing man do things to you that you know you have their favor seems like to me there's a seems like to me there's a golden nugget here that if we will learn how to submit our lives we can then look for increase but increase doesn't come unless there's first a submission a first a submission to god turn with me to matthew chapter eight verse number five in my opinion one of the most beautiful revelations of what submission looks like the bible says in matthew chapter eight in verse number five and when jesus was entered into capernaum there came unto him a centurion beseeching him now a centurion is a roman soldier who is over as the name means he is over 100 men he is a centurion centurion century he is a centurion he has been placed over brother matt 100 men he is over 100 men he has been so commissioned by the emperor he is a centurion he is over he is leading 100 men he came to jesus beseeching that word means to beg and saying lord my servant life at home sick of the palsy grievously tormented jesus saith unto him unto the centurion i will come i will come and heal him the centurion answered and said lord i am not worthy that thou should has come under my roof but speak the word only but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed look at this now really pay close attention to this because this is what submission looks like he says please i've got a servant he's grievously tormented he's sick please would you would you heal him he's lying at home and jesus said i will come and i will heal him but the centurion stopped him and said you don't need to come you you don't need to come you see i'm not worthy that you should come under my roof all you have to do is speak the word only so you have to do just speak the word only and where did you come up with this all you have to do is just simply speak the word only and my servant shall be healed look at verse 9 for i am a man under authority i am a man and i've often said this you know it's not the first time you've heard pastor say this in my opinion military men and women are some of the easiest people to pastor and you know why they know rank they know rank they're trained they train when they join whatever branch of the service they're trained that they have surrendered their right and that they are to follow what's called orders and so this man simply said you don't have to come home with me all you would have to do is just speak the word only because i am a man under authority having soldiers under me and i say to this man go and he goeth and i say to another come and he cometh and to my servant do this and he doeth it now when jesus heard it he marveled at verse number 10 please when jesus heard it he marveled look at that just keep that verse up when jesus heard it he marveled now the word marvel means to have your mind blown it means to be taken back he marveled at this it it was fascinating to him i could add something to this and say his eyes widened maybe his mouth gate he marveled he marveled in verse number 10 and said to them that were that followed now notice he didn't say to the man he said to the disciples that followed verily i say unto you i have not found so great faith no not in israel wait a minute we're talking about submission that's right but submission always turns into faith it always turns into faith so jesus says wait a minute i have not you just i have not found anything like this did you hear what he said he said he was a man under authority and that all he had to do was say go and he would go or come and he would come and do this and he would do that and he did it all because of his word but you have to understand something your word has no value unless it is submitted your word has no value unless it is submitted we can read all through the bible of what our wives should do and not do and we can read all through the bible how our kids ought to act and not act but brothers tonight put your feet out a little bit if you and i are not submitted to god it's just empty words of no value there's no value to we can quote scripture devil can quote scripture just so you need to know all right he can quote scripture we can quote scripture we can tell of what things ought to be and what things ought to look like in our marriage in our home but men if you and i are not submitted to god all it is is empty words but find a man that's submitted to god he's underneath god's rule he has submitted his spirit to god he has submitted his heart to god he has submitted his life to god that man can begin to speak the word and things begin to happen that man can begin to speak the word about warning about his marriage and god comes down and begins to minister to the marriage that man can begin to speak words over children children that may be tampering going down the wrong path that man can begin to speak words and god will see to it that an angel something happens to that child and at least that child is warned of the error of their way follow me now he said i have not found so great of faith no not in israel verse 11 i say unto you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with abraham and isaac and jacob in the kingdom of heaven but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth you know what he's saying there he is amazed that a non-jew has come up with this powerful example of submission because you do realize the great sin of the jews is simply in a capsule of this scripture he came unto his own and his own received him not but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of god so jesus turns around and he says my very people haven't learned the art of submitting to me they've not learned the art of submitting to god they've got all kind of religious relics around them but they've never learned how to submit to me but here comes a gentile here comes a centurion and he knows he knows how to submit and because he knows how to submit look at verse number 13 and jesus said unto the centurion go thy way as thou hast believed so be it done unto thee and his servant was healed in that self-same hour you know how all that come to come to pass that centurion said i'm a man under authority you see you never can have authority to be over unless your first authority to be under and the authority men that god wants us to have in our homes god wants us as men to have authority in our homes now i know i know what we're battling the culture our culture is telling us that this bible teaching of the man being the spiritual leader of the home is something that you can talk about but it's not really the real world i beg to differ i beg to differ with anyone that says that day i still believe that god's ultimate plan is to have a man who is submitted to god and that man that is submitted to god will love his wife the way that she should be loved and he will love his children the way that they should be loved and in that beautiful harmonious concert of a family there's going to be raised up sons and daughters that love god but it'll never happen men you can quote all the verses you want to quote but it'll never happen until you first place yourself under god and you're submitted to god can you say amen well i'd like to go to joshua for a moment because joshua makes a statement in joshua chapter 24 and verse number 15. joshua makes his statement to all israel he's not ashamed to make it he's not living an intimidated life he is not living in the peer pressure of the good old boys around him and he doesn't really want to let his guard down joshua's very open about how he feels about god and serving god and he says to all the men of israel he says if it seemed evil unto you to serve the lord choose you this day whom you will serve whether the gods which your father served which were on the other side of the flood or the gods or the the gods of the amorites and whose land you dwell listen to this listen to this it's not good enough that you got a pastor that'll say it and it's not good enough that you've got maybe a few men in the church to say it every man ought to be willing to make this statement right here but as for me but as for me and my house we will serve the lord it wasn't mrs joshua that made that it was mr joshua that made that it wasn't it wasn't joshua's children that came back from youth camp fired up that said that it was joshua that said i'm just going to go ahead and tell everybody right now you do what you want to do if you want to go back you go back if you want to conform to the gods of the land that we now dwell in you have at it but i just want to go down the record as saying but as for me and my house we're going to serve the lord that ought to be a banner over every man's house as for me and my house we are going to serve the lord go ahead and put your hands together as for me and my house ask for me in my house a man can only answer for his own house brother perry i can't answer for your house and you can't answer for my house a man can only answer for his own house see our problems are today our problems are today is that we're trying to institutionalize what god says is the responsibility of the man we're trying to put it up on somebody else to raise our children spiritually let's let church be an additive let's let the home be the main course if the home is the main course let's say the church be the additive to it because the truth the matter is we spend way more hours at our address than we do at this address as for me and my house we're going to serve the lord well papa everybody's doing this granddaughter as for me and my house we're going to serve well what dad there's a lot of folks there's other churches doing this and that that's well and good but as for me in my house this is what we're going to because anytime you start conforming and i i like something brother johnny godaire pastored in durham north carolina and he he said something that to me i think's worth sharing he said the problem with change is change because once you start changing when you're going to stop changing so if you can tell me when we're going to stop changing we might change but until you can tell me where we're going to stop these weapons these things that we've been doing declaring as for me and my house we're going to serve the lord has been working too good for this man for me to look for anything else oh you you you don't understand brother carpenter that that happened church all day long and that go coming to midweek service and all that that's all changing that's all that that's all you you you got to understand that's all changing well it may maybe change in some places but as for me in my house we're going to serve we're going to serve the lord joshua said ask for me in my house we're going to serve the lord turn with me to second samuel chapter three verse number one i'd like to extract something here first second samuel excuse me second samuel chapter three and verse number one now there was long war between the house of saul and the house of david but david waxed stronger and stronger and the house of saul waxed weaker and weaker if the names brother seth if the names could be changed here from david to saul if we could erase david and ray saul and god would say put your name anywhere up there you would want it well i know where you put your name what you want what do you want your house to do i want my house to grow stronger and stronger i don't want my house to grow weaker and weaker i i don't want i don't want mom and dad to be fully dedicated to god and my kids be half day dedicated to god and my grandkids not be dedicated to god i want my house to grow not well then how was it that saul's house grew weaker and weaker well it's found in first samuel chapter 15. first samuel chapter 15 you you all will want to really listen to this because you don't want your house to grow weaker and weaker first samuel 15 verse 1 samuel said unto saul the lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people over israel now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the lord listen to him thus saith the lord of hosts i remember that which amalek did to israel how he lay weight for him in the way when he came up from egypt now go and smite amalek and utterly destroy all that he have spare them not but slay both man and woman infant suckling ox sheep camel and ass so god gave him god gave him something to do now saul are you going to submit to this god gave him something to do and god gave him clear instructions on what to do i want you to go and utterly destroy not most of the amalekites not ninety-nine percent of the ambulance i want you to utterly destroy all of them all of their livestock i want you to utterly destroy them saul gets on the way verse 4. saul gathered together saul gathered the people together and numbered them and tilliam two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of judah i think i see the first mistake that he makes why do you number why do you number the men when god's already told you that you're going to win saul evidently begins to look at his own strength saul came to the city of amalek and lay weight in the valley saul said unto the canights it was a group of people that were living there saul said to the canights go depart get you down from among the amalekites lest i destroy you with them for you showed kindness to all the children of israel when they came up out of egypt so the canines departed from among the amalekites now i want to add something here and this this is what i say and not the lord and there may be you know you might could get on the side and say yeah but they were kind to israel but isn't it amazing god never said anything about the canines if god had wanted the canines to be saved don't you think god do we think god knew the canights were there i would i would say yes god knew the canites were there why didn't god mention them evidently god didn't want them to be mentioned and could it be possible that all the canites did not escape from the city without alerting the amalekites maybe just some of the amalekites slipped out with the canines that's that's just my that's just a little something i'm throwing in there for good measure because when god gives us a clear commandment he doesn't need our commentary on it god gives us a clear commandment one of the worst things we can do is starting to analyze it and look at it verse seven saw smoke and you need to really pay attention as pastor reads because you're going to see this and saul smote the amal kites from have allah until thou cometh to sure that is over against egypt and he took a gag the king of the amalekites alive who took and who took a gig alive saul did and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword but saul and the people spared a gang and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and of the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them but everything that was vile and refused that they destroyed utterly once again we see the flaw coming on and that is that saul begin to interpret what god had clearly stated god said i want everything destroyed but saul got his own standard saul got his own value system and he said you know i i think we would keep this alive and we would keep that alive then came the word of the lord unto samuel saying it repented me that i have sent saul to be king free for he has turned back from following me and have not performed my commandment and it grieved samuel and he cried unto the lord all night samuel rose early in the morning to meet saul and let me just just for time say because i don't want to run out of time samuel comes to meet saul and evidently samuel is up in age and samuel is blind and uh he meets saul and saul's got a bunch of sheep and a bunch of oxen and he meets saul and saul begins by saying blessed are you man of god i've done the will of god i have done the will of god and that old blind prophet might have been blind physically but he had 20 20 vision spiritually he said if you've done the commandment of the lord how come i hear the bleeding of the oxen of the sheep how come i hear the sheep bleeding how come i hear the sounds of the sheep and how come i hear the lowing of the of the ox and you have not you have not fulfilled the word of the lord and then saul begins to blame the people he began to say well the people did this and the people did that you see when we're not truly submitted to god when we're not truly submitted to god we allow a spirit of deception we'll we'll try to justify it well i'm just as good a well i've done the will of god i've done is it the people willing plainly the people didn't do it the bible says that saul was the one and so i'd like to go on down to verse number um let's go down to verse number uh saul and samuel are talking in verse number 20 and saul said unto samuel yea i have obeyed the voice of the lord and i have gone the way which the lord sent me and it brought agag the king of amyloid amalek and if utterly destroyed the amalekites but the people took the spoil sheep and oxen the chief of things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice unto the lord thy god and gilga now watch saul begins to try to turn it on the prophet you're reigning on our parade we are spiritual we're we're going to have a sacrifice you you don't understand we're going to have a sacrifice but verse 22 first samuel 15 and 22. and samuel said hath the lord as great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the lord behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken listen than the fat of rams he said so you don't you don't get it he said god is more pleased with obedience than he is sacrificed he said to obey god is much more than all of the sacrifices and to listen to god is much more than the fat of rams now you know why it says this because any time we try to do something and get an answer from god but not god's way we begin to dabble in witchcraft brethren we try to get an answer but not god's way if the word of god says it if you're trying to get an answer any other way you are dabbling into witchcraft this is what he said in verse 23 for rebellion which is the opposite of submission right rebellion is the opposite of submission submission is openly surrendering to god god i surrender to what you say god i surrender to what you say god i surrender to your ways god your ways is what i surrender to that's called submission but if i go up in god's face and say i know what the word of god says but i know god said destroy all the amalekites but this and but that then that's rebellion and we need to understand what rebellion is connected to for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry because thou has rejected the word of the lord he hath also rejected thee from being king and saul said unto samuel i have sinned for i have transgressed the commandment of the lord and thy words for i feared the people and obeyed their voice verse 24 again i'm going to show you this sounds like he repented doesn't it he's not because he blames it on the people he blames it on the people he said well i did this but i was pressured by the people come on men let's be men when we sin let's own up to our sin let's not blame it on anything but our own irresponsibility let's put the blame smack dab where it goes because you know what if i start blaming my mama my daddy my grandparents i start blaming everybody else for my behavior they're already dead they're already in the grave it's already happened and nothing can be corrected but if i let the blame fall right where it ought to fall then i can correct it i got me in this mess and bless god of heaven i can get me out of this mess because i'm going to own up to what i've done but saul didn't do that he said man of god it was a people that forced me to do this now watch verse 25 saul says now therefore i pray thee pardon my sin turn again with me that i may worship the lord samuel said unto saul i will not return with thee for thou has rejected the word of the lord and the lord hath rejected thee from being king over israel and and as samuel turned about to go away he lay hold saw lay hold on the skirt of his mantle that's the man of god's suit his mantle and it rent watch this if we don't obey god's word and we allow rebellion to get in our heart the next thing we'll want to do is dismantle the man of god we'll want to dismantle we'll want to dismantle that when saul he said you need to worship with me i i want to be seen with you i want all israel to see me and samuel worshiping together but when that man of god would not put his stamp of approval on saul saul said if you won't give me your stamp of approval i'll reach and get ahold of you and i'll try to and his garment his garment rent and samuel said unto him when that garment rent samuel said unto saul the lord hath rent the kingdom of israel from thee this day he hath given it given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou speaking about david and also the strength of israel will not lie nor repent that's god for he is not a man that he should repent then he said i have sinned yet honor me now listen at him he's still he's still in brother maker he's still image driven i mean the man of god but look at this image-driven maniac he said i have sinned yet honor me now verse 30 i pray thee before the elders of my people and before israel and turn again with me that i may worship the lord thy god so samuel turned again did it make any sense to his educated syrian mind that you could dip in a muddy hole and be healed of leprosy no it didn't make sense to his educated mind but somewhere brother brandon that man said i'm going to surrender to the god of israel that man said i don't understand i've got beautiful rivers you can see the bottom of them in my land i've got beautiful rivers in damascus i've got much more beautiful rivers in that mud hole of jordan running down the road but yet i don't understand it but i'll park my fine chariot over there beside jordan river i'll take off my robe i'll walk down in the middle of that jordan river and i'll wash my body seven times and because he submitted himself to the word of god on the seventh time he came up and that old scabby leprosy that was all over him it was as if he had the skin of a little baby god once again proves that if we will submit ourselves to him that he's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all could we just thank him right now could we just thank him  naaman goes back to the house of the man of god and boy he begins to unload the camels he's got gold he's got garments he's got suits he's got all kind of wealth because in his mind he thought he was going to have to pay for this healing so he begins to unload the gold and the garments and the man of god says you might as well put it back up on the camels i'm not going to take one bit of it oh please here no no no put that gold back on them captain we're not taking none of that gold none of them garments and you know why don't you because had naaman went back to syria healed and somebody said what did it cost you oh a couple of talents of silver oh a couple of garments so it cost me this but when he he should have went back into syria and people say what'd that cost you naaman and he should he should have scratched his head and said you know what the man of god wouldn't take a dime i can't understand you mean there's a god that'll because you got to get in the mind of these pagan people they're paying for everything their false god promises but here's a god that comes through and there's no leprosy and you didn't pay god was going to use it as a testimony but wait a minute wait a minute let's not allow us being so familiar brothers we are so blessed with the word of god the spirit of god and the things of god and one of the cautions that we have to give about being so blessed we can begin to take it for granted and try to see things our way is a man there matter of fact he should have been the replacement for elisha his name was geheza he stood there that day when the man of god said you might as well put the silver back on the camel you might as well put you might as well put all that back on it we're not taking nothing he stood there and he thought to himself i don't agree with elisha i don't agree with this i i don't agree with how he's handled i don't agree with how he's handled this this syrian why he didn't take what would have what would it hurt to have taken some things from i i simply don't agree i'm gonna tell you something anytime you begin to see something i'm not saying you're always going to agree but any kind of disagreement needs to go to a fervent prayer time prayer time things i've not understood there's been things i belong to i belong to a ministerial group and there's been times i've not understood things but instead of trying to lead a rebellion i want to go to god god help me god is there something here i'm not seeing god you need to speak some peace to me i don't agree with i don't i don't i do not agree with elisha i do not agree that he let this syrian leave i don't agree with this and he let his disagreement begin to justify actions that were against the word of god he ran behind the man of god's back he ran and stopped naaman's caravan naaman turned around from the chariot and asked what it was and naaman or gaheza told a lie he said oh naaman the man of god had some guests come from across jordan and we need a little money to take care of them we need some changes of garment he said uh uh we need two talents of silver and a change of garments and naaman said be content take more take more and he took more matter of fact he had even have some of naaman's servants carry it almost back they carried it to the watchtower and gaheza was fearful that the man of god may see it so he took it went home and hid it and then he walked into the presence of the man of god and the man of god said jesus where have you been gay as i said i didn't go anywhere now i hope you may be seeing something here because when we begin to submit our lives we begin to walk in truth when we begin to walk in rebellion we begin to walk in lies you can't walk in submission and be lying and you can't walk in rebellion and be telling the truth he starts lying i i didn't go anywhere i didn't go nowhere i didn't go anywhere and the man of god said did not my heart go with you i was there god allowed me to see it in the spirit god allowed me to see name and turn around god allowed me to see that you lied and took these garments and then this is the horrible truth he said the leprosy that clave to naaman is going to cleave to you but that's not the sad part and your children the house of david grew stronger and stronger but the house of saul grew weaker and weaker how will your house grow how will your house grow and that answer is all in your control it's not in my control it's not in it's not in the people that gather for prayer here at this church the answer to whether or not your house will grow stronger and stronger lies within your own submission to god god give us the spirit of saul this is my last verse for the night saul of tarsus acts chapter nine verse number 6. somebody say praise the lord god give me this spirit here god give me the spirit of saul and he trembling and astonished said lord what will thou have me to do lord what do you want me to do god what do you want me to do if that is not the totality of a submitted man i don't know what verse is if that one verse doesn't tell us where submission begins nothing else does god what do you want me to do now we understand some things there are some of the things in the bible that are so crystal clear i can tell you what god wants you to do as your pastor as your pastor i can tell you what god wants you to do god wants you to submit your life to him and the things of god god wants you to submit your life to him in reference to coming to the house of god god wants you to submit your life to him as far as where you put your affections your delight your love god wants you to submit yourself to him and you'll find that you'll never you'll never be sad that you submitted your life to him in the area of raising your family on these pews i have never had one man in 37 years of pastoring this church i have never had one man come and sit in my office and say i regret putting my kids through the school i regret all the years we came here every time the doors are open i regret the tithe that i gave of my income i regret i regret i regret i've never i've never but old friend i couldn't tell you the amount of men and women that sat in the office and said why didn't i do that why didn't i spend my time why why didn't i bring them oh you see you see it's not that you men tonight have less time than men that are not here you've got the same amount of time that they've got the only difference between you and men that don't come on a regular basis is that you have submitted yourself to the priority of god and said god it's far more important for me to be on a pew tonight listening to a bible study than it is for me to be at home getting some extra rest to get up in the morning right am i right tonight men is this right tonight it's it god what will you have me to do what will you have me to do god what will you have me to do and god just simply says submit yourself to me submit your time to me submit your talent to me submit your mind to me there'll be things i ask you to do you won't understand you'll be lacking in finances and i may tap you on the shoulder and tell you to give 500 to a missionary god says don't doubt me submit to me because i'm able to take the last little bit of flour that's in the widow's barrel and i'm willing to feed her all through the famine if you just trust me if you'll just trust me would you stand right now man i feel such a sweet spirit in this room tonight i do i feel such a sweet spirit in this room tonight could we just right now pray the saul prayer god what will you have me to do lord god what will you have me to do god what lord show me if there's anything god that i'm not doing that i should do lord would you show me that come on men before we go home tonight let's pray the saul prayer together let's pray it together god the name of jesus lord touch these men tonight god touch these men that are seated here tonight i surrender my all to you god i surrender all that i am i surrender all that i would ever be come on pray with me tonight men oh i surrender all i surrender all to you oh come on yield your voice to god yield your voice to god right now men lift up your voice and pray pray loud enough that you can hear yourself pray tonight yield your voice to god god would have you to lift up your voice oh god i love you tonight lord i love you tonight oh god oh god i praise you tonight lord i do oh god what will you have me to do oh god what will you have me to do god oh god what will you have me to do what will you have me to do lord oh mighty god of heaven mighty god of heaven oh mighty god of heaven i praise you lord oh sweet holy ghost move upon us right now god oh what will you have me to do tonight what will you have me to do tonight god oh what will you have me to do lord what do you want me to do oh god oh mighty god mighty god mighty god oh my my my oh man let's not try to rationalize the word away let's not try to to rationalize the word away let's not try to put you know well brother carpenter the bible uh you know i don't i don't believe the you know if i don't pay these bills i'm gonna have a bad name in the community i don't pay these bills and i think god will be more pleased with me paying my bills and having a good name than bringing the tithe in the truth the matter is you ain't never going to pay your bills that way but you can you can explain you can you can you see how saul did you see how saul did people do that today or this is very very common this is very common uh bill carpenter i've been coming to this church and i really love the spirit i feel i love all this but when i was baptized i was baptized with them saying father son holy ghost and you seem to really want to emphasize that jesus name is what ought to be spoken well you're correct you're correct we're we're saying the same thing now you're trying to do saul we're not saying the same thing father son holy ghost baptism came out of the 3rd century catholic church it did not come from the first century apostolic church so why don't you pray that prayer god if you want me to be baptized in jesus name god and he does i can tell you that he does but you just have to realize you have to be willing you know i've had more people that didn't believe the holy they didn't believe in receiving the holy ghost and all i asked them to do in a bible study i said well will you do this well i just don't believe it i don't believe you speak in times i just don't believe you do that i said would you do would you do would you just do this one thing for me and mean it from your heart would you just simply pray this simple prayer god i don't understand the holy ghost but if it is true i want to receive it and i've had more people receive the holy ghost that first told me they didn't believe in it but because they got the saul spirit saul of tarsus not saul in the old testament saul in the old testament his house grew and if you could leave you with anything that saul's house grew what david's house grew so your house will grow stronger and stronger when you just submit yourself to god's word do what god's word says and your house will grow stronger and stronger men i love you thank you so very much for coming out tonight god bless you dismissed in jesus name