Last Five Steps to Revival
by Marrell Cornwell
1997 · Alabama Revival Conference
Kind: conference session

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/marrell-cornwell--last-five-steps-to-revival
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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and I want to say what a great time that we have had you know the beauty of sitting on the front row is you don't know how many people's behind you when you sit on the back row you see so many empty seats but when you're on the front row it didn't matter whether there's 10 people there are a thousand I want to say say thank you to the Alabama district uh this is the third time that we've had the opportunity and the privilege uh of being in this meeting and it has just been a tremendous blessing uh I had an opportunity to take our pastoral staff to a number of conventions uh because of the times the East Coast Conference and other meetings but uh I chose the Alabama Revival conference because of the format and the way that y'all do things here I like to just sit down and learn amen we can shout a little bit during the learning process but but uh we grow when we hear from the Lord can I have an amen to that so I thank uh brother Sutton for being our gracious uh chauffer uh normally he gets uh he rents a a limousine and and makes us feel important but I brought so many with us uh he had to rent a truck so I got a demotion there but uh it's been a great blessing uh I have enjoyed thoroughly the ministry of brother Morgan uh you can build a church in Oklahoma you can build a church anywhere praise God if you talk in tongues in Oklahoma more than once a year you can talk in tongues anywhere and uh what a great work that he is doing in mulie I have many fond memories of O mulie uh I preached 12we Revival in Old muggy reason I preach 12 weeks it takes at least 11 and a half to pray the preacher through and uh just great times in Oklahoma and I have preached numerous times for brother uh Libby what a great uh church that he has and uh brother Libby's Ministry is very reflective in his church uh his people are as smooth and sve as he is hallelujah you come to Wi T It Ain't Nothing But butcher knives and axes Hallelujah and I want all of you fellas to know there ain't going to be no changes praise God in Kansas uh you don't hint about something being sin either you spell it out and don't misspell it they never understand it and uh so uh you know the where you are the town will make your ministry it'll make your ministry when I came to wiah I was smooth and sve y' don't believe a word of that oh my I've lost credibility here yesterday I started on the 10 steps the downward trend from revival to becoming a prodal the story of the of the prodical of the prodical son by the way I I uh somebody Lo me their Walmart glasses I still can't see I still can't see my wife I found my glasses and uh she took them and uh so I can't see with them I can't stay without them so Brother Moore you going to have to get another microphone today and uh we'll we'll try to survive here somehow and uh I I covered uh yesterday the first 12 excuse me the first five steps that takes place when we go from being the kind of Revival Church Revival Saint Revival Pastor that we need to be uh to being a prodical son or a prodical church in our town recently uh one a single Church uh in an area of town that needs Revival needs great Revival uh one man paid them over2 and5 million dollar in tithe in one check but instead of buying buses and

expanding evangelism and reaching out uh they spent that to be more elaborate within themselves more lavish uh within themselves and I think that it is a great tragedy when our churches are more prosperous right now than they've ever been but we are also more lavished than we have ever been and we are less Revival than we have ever been in I traveling around the country I'm aware that the devil doesn't like me I'm I'm much aware of that and I'm much aware that the odds have always being on the highway and in airplanes that something could happen and my wife and I talk all the time about uh if something happens to me what do you want us as a family to do and I say well my first desire of course would be that uh it would be such that you could stay right here in this church but uh perhaps the preacher that would follow me uh would not feel comfortable uh with with you and and the family there and so if you have to move uh we have in our little secret meetings uh picked out two or three churches that uh my family would move to if something was to happen to me and the one thing that I do not want to happen is for my family to go to a church where the man of God is not the man of God amen amen I want him to be the bishop I want my family to go where there's a man of God in the pull pit that's not afraid of the devil or you or anybody else if you are afraid to Pastor your church if you're afraid to look at the biggest demon in your church eyeball to eyeball and say look I'm going preach what God gives me and if you want to vote me out you vote me out but when you do you're going to burn in hell and a pastor that pastors with fear of the people is going to eventually get in great trouble and that church is going to become a prodical church God didn't call the demon board I mean the Deacon board there's not a lot of difference of course uh he didn't call the demon board to Pastor the church he called a man of God to Pastor that church amen he didn't come up he didn't call a bunch of bail cow women uh to lead the pastor around like he got a a ring in his nose amen if God called a woman it would have been God called a aplet and prophetes and so on but God didn't do that God called a man to leave that church to be the overseer to be the bishop can I have an amen he didn't call the to Wag the Dog he called the dog to wag the tail amen get kind of quiet you're afraid to Pastor your church days of Revival for you are way over can I have an amen and I don't need a bunch of uh women come and tell me God said the church ought to do this and God said the church ought to do that God you talk to me these bunch of women ain't my secretaries you talk to me only woman I want to tell me what to do is my wife amen I I heard one preacher say that his church tells him what to do when he's at church his wife tells him what to do at home and all he has to know is how to get from home to church amen there are too many churches that that have have began this process of going downhill they still have nice buildings they have great choirs they have a lot of good things they have money uh people dress in finer clothes praise God but that doesn't make a church a Revival church because it looks good from the streeten I'd rather worship God in a warehouse full of worshiping people than in the biggest Cathedral a bunch of people who are cold and dead can I have an amen and so yesterday I started and I just want to take us uh for just a moment of time the first thing that happens of course we've talked about this already I'm go very brief here is that we start listening to the wrong voice can I have an amen amen and then of course secondly once we listen to the wrong voice uh we start becoming Covetous we start coveting things that ordinarily we would not it things that God does not want us to have and once we start uh coveting uh things our priorities begin

to change can I have an amen many churches I have been privileged to be a part of their origin a part of their Genesis and uh one in particular Church uh I remember uh the pastor pastored a very fine Church ran about uh 300 uh it was about 10 miles out in the country he had reached the whole community and about 10 Mi away there was a a large town and did not have a church and God dealt with him two years about going to town and he talked to me and he talked to others about it and he said I know that uh if I suggest uh going to town that these people are so stiff necked and uncircumcised of heart and proud uh their great great grandma got the holy ghost at the altar here and and bless God uh we're not leaving here and I'm sure that they're not going to want to go to town and he Saidi love these people but I don't know what to do and eventually he had to make the decision because God did call him to reach that town and uh true to form they did not follow him to town only 10 miles away but they did not follow him to town and uh and as soon as he announced that he was going to start a church in town they let him know that if you're going to start a church in town then you're not our pastor anymore even though he had won all those people to God and he went to town and uh he started in a a building that was a a metal just a metal building uh it was just a tin building uh had to expose Rafters and and it was in July and I was the first evangelist to preach for and and uh they didn't have any carpet on the floor had been a mechanic's garage and still had the huge uh push out garage doors and somebody had longed them a bunch of theater seats that had come out of an old burned out uh movie theater and then we'll forget one night there uh there was a group that came from Country Church uh the the stiff necked and uncircumcised and the proud people they want to come observe what was going on and they was the whole family that whole row was on the back row power God moved and and Pentecostals are narrow minded but that's the only place they're narrow and they got stuck in those theater seats and the power God fell and one one person tried to jump up to shout but their hips were stuck and the and the whole row went over backwards and I looked around all you could see was seam stockings and high heels sticking straight up in the air it was great man that was the greatest mve of God I ever seen Hallelujah Rejoice not against me oh my enemy praise God and uh and that the women were so br that that we had to lift a whole row of Pew uh seats up at one time in order to get them out of the seats and uh praise God hallelujah anyhow and uh you know there was no conveniences there was no air conditioning there was no carpet uh all it was a metal Barn uh in Louisiana in July and I would preach 10 minutes and I'd be sosing in my shoes and God sent Revival and and that metal Barn went from just a handful of people in about three and A2 years to running 700 brand new apostolics that God fill with the Holy Ghost in that in that town we don't need Cathedrals I thank God for air conditioning I thank God for padded pews that's not Revival beautiful buildings are not Revival because we're able to wear neck ties and Suits is not Revival because we don't come in covered wagons and buckboards and horses and t- models uh and we drive Cadillacs and mercedesbenz now that's not Revival amen Revival is when there is a sovereign autonomous moving of God Among the people of God amen amen amen amen amen praise God and uh and and I I I I just feel so impressed in my spirit to say that when we start listening to the wrong voices and we start becoming Covetous and our priorities uh uh begin to change and and and and and then Pride starts setting in and and I want I want to deal with his pride the best I can uh we've got to quit fellowshipping on basis of how large or how small our church is my best friend the the people that I'm closest to uh pastor church uh uh tent some of them a 20th the size of my church we don't Fellowship on the basis of the size of our church we ba we Fellowship on the basis of we got to feed and have relationship with one another amen amen praise can I have an amen amen I'm not anybody special uh uh I'm not anybody uh uh great because I happen to have a

church that has a few more people in it than you do we need one another amen I've sat here today uh and brother Libby has fed my spirit I was here last night as soon as I changed out of my wet clothes and came back and uh brother Morgan was preaching and I was fed by Brother Morgan and brother olivy has already said it but there's not a greater music or or worship leader that I have ever known uh than brother Stan Davidson every time he stands up here I just marvel at his ability and gift to to lead us into that type of worship we need one another can I have an amen pastors need uh associate pastors and assistant pastors and we need secretaries and we need bus workers and we need labors together and we need Sunday school teachers and and so on and so forth every one of us regardless of where we think we are we need one another and we are not Islands unto ourselves Pride will make us think that we're on top of the Heap and everybody else is on the bottom when that is simply not true we're all on the same level because we're bowing at the foot of his cross and when we bow at the foot of his cross we're on the same level amen hallelujah now I'm I I want to talk about a few things I want to cover this little pride Factor I'm just kinding of get warmed up here before I getting this new stuff praise God but uh I I I appreciate preachers that worship God all right come on come on I appreciate pastors that worship God am when I come out in my church I don't want to come out like I'm the pope and make a grand entry I I don't I don't get up there and sit there and fold my arms and see what's going to happen next anybody knows anything about me knows I come into the service to worship God I worship God during the service I talk about God after service I will you understand what I'm get trying to get up we need as preachers to be worshippers as much as we want our Saints to worship and if we would worship as much uh as we require our Saints to worship then God could do a lot more through us well I've got my mind on my sermon well why don't you throw your sermon away and get one from God if if Shon makes you lose your text it wasn't attached very hard to your heart all right can I have an amen Pride makes us think that we're a notch better than the world Amen we have holy Pride I'm glad I ain't like them stupid Baptist well most of the commentaries you read were written by the Baptist amen and most of the wars that made America free were fought by the Baptist come on and we're enjoying the fruit of their labor they might not be as stupid as we think they are on I'm getting off that we need to get off of our pride and get down on a level where Sinners can identify with us keep dropping my sermon now we talked about when pride comes our productivity drops off Brother Moore go with me please to uh uh chapter 13 and begin reading at verse number 10 I want to show you what happens with pride now in the United Pentecostal church we got we we're like a turkey we got a small right wing and a small left wing and we've got a big body and I tell you what you ought to do with that turkey cut the left Wings off and the right wing off and you'll find where God's at on because I don't like the radicals on either side right we got holy we got holy nuts running around and we got liberal nuts running around this is on tape isn't it this do apply to y'all I I got to I'm preaching to people that ain't here yet I don't get to preach to the crowd tonight so I'm going to put this on tape we got the holy nuts and the liberal nuts we got those that believe if you wear a red dress you're going to go to hell in in our area if if if you wear a ribbon in your hair you're going to bust hell wide open and I teach in our church that for the single girls to put flowers and ribbons and bows and hair look single my God don't come to church 17 look like you're 78 amen you ain't never going to get a boy to look at you we call our VES the courtyard I I want

our kids to court I want them to marry my God I want them to marry have more Young have more little Pentecostals running around amen amen amen I have the gift of pregnancy if you can't have a baby I can pray for you and you can have one women avoid me at times Hallelujah I announced we was going to have a pregnancy service here a few nights ago and you ought to see some of the women heading to the back of the church amen we're not going to have any little youngers running around we don't encourage our kids to get married and they're not going to get married who wants to marry an ugly girl come on Who Wants to Marry a homely looking boy come on stand in front of the mirror put some styling gel in your air slick that hair back brush your teeth put on a necktie make yourself look good spit on your shoes and rub them and get the mud off of them and go to church and Court I'd rather you Court in the house of God than any place else but my God some preachers think of a boy and a girl look at each other that they already committing fornication they're going to die and go to hell so they put the girls over there the boys over there and they think that they going to keep them separated the preacher stupid to think that amen amen I tell our nice looking boys to to dress up polish up and go down to the neighboring Church to steal some girls and proelite and bring them home if you see some boys from wiah in Alabama you know what they're here for hallelujah hallelujah amen and so we got the we got the extremes on both sides and then we got those that as I said the other night they don't believe a gree pole is slicky they let their people do anything afraid to preach bunch of hirelings running around scared of the deacon boards and and and and and and the Very ones that you won't preach to eventually going to run you off amen can I have an amen preacher told me the day he said hey preacher said said you're making the Liberals mad and you're making the conservatives mad you're going to get hit from both directions I said no no I'm I'm going to stay right in the middle of this thing he said man when you're in the middle of the road you're going to get hit both ways I said I'm not on a road I'm on I'm on a Runway every Runway I've ever seen was a oneway straight right and I'm going to stay in the middle of the runway cuz I a launch out of this place can I have an amen I don't want to get caught up in the controversies of the Liberals and I don't want to get caught up in the controversies of the extreme right wings of this place whenever whenever we get to to the place where uh our productivity is is Neil and we're no longer producing uh the uh people of God and we're not effectively doing the work of the ministry something else happens read Brother Moore and and he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabath teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath and behold there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity I want you to watch this I want I want you to watch this read 18 years this poor woman had an infirmity 18 years and was bowed together bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself could not lift up herself and when Jesus saw her uh-huh he called her to him and said unto her woman thou art loosed from thine INF you know what he wasn't embarrassed about this woman with her infirmity aren't you glad that the Lord cares as much for the old as he does the young aren't you glad he cares for those who are blind and lame and M the ones that Society rejects he's just as concerned about that element as he is middle class white people who can pay their tithe and build a finer Family Life Center the problem with some of us is we're too busy counting tithe and see who the important people are in the congregation there might be somebody in the church that may not pay but $18 a month welfare tithe and she's just as important the fat cat that puts in $500 a week we're not in this for people's tithe we're in this for the people's Souls you say that's easy for you say cuz you got a lot of ties coming in hadn't always been a lot of tithe coming in and we have the same fiscal policy now as we did then had one of our our our uh members he's on one of our trustee board and he said uh he said uh uh uh Pastor he said uh just what is our policy around here came on a trustee board see he want to know what our our financial policy was I said it's going to be the same as it's always been we going to spend what comes in a that's what we're supposed to be doing we're supposed to be a pipeline and a channel for God's blessings

and I said there are some things we don't vote on we buy a building you get one vote we buy more property you get one vote we buy buses for evangelism you don't vote we buy Bible study charts you don't vote nobody's going to vote on whether or not I can reach souls for Jesus Christ my Ministry is not up for no vote come on right my God there's some Churches want to vote a preacher in it reminds me of a story I heard about a Baptist uh preacher uh he went into a church that every year they voted out the pastor and voted a new one in over 75 years that church had existed and that had 75 pastors and so they they brought in a young man's fresh out of Seminary voted him in his Pastor year went by they didn't vote for first time in the history of that church they didn't vote two years went by they didn't vote three years went by four years went by five years he he had the longest tenure of any Pastor in the history of that church and he was feeling really good about himself and so he met the uh head demon Deacon and uh he said he said you know he said uh I've been here five years and in the Deacon said yeah five years he said you know I've been here long than any other preacher and the Deacon said yep been here long the other preacher and he said you know this church used to vote out preachers every year till I came he said yep voted out preachers every year you came but he said SUNY boy don't feel too good about yourself he said this church really doesn't need a preacher and you're the nearest nothing we've ever found we get to the place where where where certain types of people come to our church we don't like them that they they ruin our church all right the big heavy set sinner woman she got smeared makeup on and her hair doesn't have a Pentecostal bun to it and she comes to church wearing stretch pants all right and there's nothing hidden that shall not be revealed and you can see your little Pentecostal ladies avoiding her because she had learned how to to to sew yet and have the fancy clothes that that Pentecostals wear at church we're the only people in the world that wear as fancy clothes at church as what we wear are you let some teenager come to church and he got a pair of shorts on basketball jersey comes to Sunday school how old tell my Tex is not is come out from among them and be separate sayth the Lord Holiness and so we string him up and kill him for he knows how to spell Holiness and hope to God we don't have a visiting preacher there when one of them comes in because he going to leave and tell your neighbor and Pastor that you done go charismatic am I preaching or what 130 teenagers in teen Outreach that's a mess of kids is it brother Emer that's a hard group to handle isn't it I mean they they ride on the walls throw rolls of toilet paper in a commode and ask God I wouldn't have that trash in my church that's the reason I run over a thousand and you don't it's because I hire a janitor to take the rolls of toilet paper out of the commode and keep on rolling amen read some more about this woman with infirmity 18 years and he laid his hands on her all right and immediately she was made straight and glorified God Jesus Christ ministered to her and made her whole read and the ruler of the synagogue here's the sixth step the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation he answered with indignation hardness all right hard hardness and lack of compassion is killing us in Pentecost the Lord was more concerned about This Woman's infirmity than he was the church rules all right well I am I am I am walking walking a tight rope friend am I walking a tight rope right now come on with amen y'all

need to send the copy of this tape to my district let me I like you to do that so they can hear some good preaching once in a while amen you remember what David done when he was running and he was hungry he went into the house of God and ate the bread that was not lawful for him to eat it's it's called The Law of set aside they set aside a minor ordinance in order to preserve a life when I first started going to the house of God when I first started coming to church you know how I first came to church you know you know what was a Breaking of that college Pastor is I showed up to church barefooted in June with a pair of Bermuda shorts on only and sat on the front row in the holiest Church in Louisiana and and and and truly the song uh uh they illustrate the song there there shall be Showers of blessing Showers of blessing we plead Mercy drops around us a fallen but for the showers we plead the preacher stood on over me and spit on me for six months with his shouting and screaming and ranting and railing about Holiness I didn't have the foggiest idea what he was talking about he was talking about that when when you come to the house of God you ought to be holy and here I am standing up waving my arm with my belly button sticking out all it had to I got sense that's gray matter between my ears just come and say uh brother Cornwell uh you when you come to church you need a pair wear a pair of blue jeans and a shirt and and put a pair of shoes on might want to put some socks on your feet you know that's all you got to do to people they don't know our allegorical preaching our types and shadows they don't know about God the Bible decency or Holiness in 1997 amen but you ain't got to kill them before you teach them I'm against wearing shorts praise God but I'll set aside that law if somebody wants to sit on my front row and wear a pair of shorts to the house of God until I can feed him enough and put some clothes on his back we got to get this hard Spirit out of our lives and we need a baptism of the spirit of compassion am I making sense I'm not against Holiness I'm for Holiness but friend let me tell you something everybody that comes to our church is not holy I don't care how high you wear your neckline or how low you wear your skirt line or how long your sleeves are and how little jewelry you got on or what you got and make up on a on if a heart is not clean all of that doesn't mean deadly squat so I think what we need to do is get our heart cleaned up and stay holy on the outside and here's how to know you're clean on the inside it's when you seek and save that which Jesus Christ is interested in Hallelujah I get weary of being called a compromiser because on Sunday morning we got a 100 people that in our church that needs the holy ghost that needs to be baptized and we don't jump up and run them all off before we have a chance to baptize them in the name of Jesus you know there's something about when you lose your productivity and and you're not winning anybody then you got to start developing a reason why you're not living losing uh winning anybody and hardness starts setting in I'm the only one right friend I don't want to have nothing to do with any preacher who thinks the only one that's got a holy church there are almost 10,000 preachers in the United Pentecostal church and we are the cleanest living people that I've ever known in my entire life and we got preachers all across this country and around this world that still preach Holiness and the United Pentecostal Church is not going down come on get off of your high horse and get out of your little political group and realize that we need one another we don't need to be killing one another amen amen I taught a Bible study one time Elder and I taught it nine weeks I was teaching search for truth back in those days and I didn't even phase the people and so I slowed down and I T 10 more weeks on Revelation and I didn't even phase them I stung them with scorpions I burned them with a fire from heaven I

put guns to the head and blowed their brains out and they walked around like the headless horsemen of like ubide crane I did everything didn't phas them I turned the chart around started over and taught nine more weeks in the Bible got the revelations and taught 10 more weeks on Revelation and somebody asked me he said how could you teach 10 weeks on Revelation and then teach 10 more weeks on Revelation again I said because I changed my mind about what I believe on Revelation I ain't going to split hairs with you uh uh you know when you think the Lord's coming as long as you believe he's going to come right now I don't care whether you believe he's coming now in the middle or afterwards as long as you believe he's coming before that's right praise God and if you believe otherwise you've been wrong before praise God I'm picking a fight aren't I Hallelujah and it's amazing how we get bent out of shape because some brother dis agrees with us on what the third horn on the fourth Beast stands for that's right that's right and want to call him a liberal because he disagrees with us you're not a liberal because you disagree with somebody and you're not a conservative because you agree with somebody else we need to stick with that book we need to stick with the Holy leadership that God has appointed to us we need to follow our pastor and the man of God can I have that amen less hardness sit in you say well Pastor you really think there are a our churches that are hard just look around and find out can I have an amen now I want you to go a little bit further Brother Moore and go down to verse number 18 then said he wait when once you get hard once you get hard something happens that's almost irreversible how many here before you you came to God uh you were not as well off as you are right now you know I can't I came out of Cotton Patch my folks were sharecroppers on 35 acre cotton Farm we we we we we we harvested our cotton and we went down to the General Store and we paid our grocery bill for the year and it took every dime and we had to just start charging again right after we got our cotton crop in Tennessee Ernie Ford said it right when he said St Peter don't you call me cuz I can't go I owe my soul to the company store that ain't a that ain't a song that was a hard truth and reality that's what I I came out of poverty I came out of living in a a shack that didn't have a front door or a back door and didn't have indoor plumbing and and didn't have window panes in the windows my wife tells a story of one morning she woke up and and the Sleep had come through the roof and and and her head was stuck to the pillar we were raised poor my wife was poorer than I was she she was raised on a 25 acre cotton Farm I know where God has brought me from and God started blessing me before I ever got the Holy Ghost he started blessing me one night when I was 16 years old and we had buried my 23-year-old sister we were not churchgoers we were not church people and that night in a room with five other boys I climbed out of my bed and knelt down with looking through rusty rusty screen Windows into a full moon shining through four sweet gum trees outside our bedroom three boys to a bed and I knelt down after that funeral of that day and I said God I don't know who you are or where you are I don't know how to find you I don't even know if you even exist out there but God would I can't find you I don't know how to find you God would you find me and I was 16 years old uh getting ready to go into uh finish my my 11th year of of school and the next year I went through my senior year and and and one week before graduation I was called to the office uh by the intercom and I walked into the principal's office and my dad was sitting there in a pair of khaki pants and and work boots and khaki shirt and an old felt hat and and my dad had never been to school with me a day in 12 years I I went to school in the first grade and registered my own self my mom and dad had never come to school on my behalf one day and my dad sitting there and I and I just knew I had got caught up with on something I'd done wrong and and my dad was called the school I walked in to the principal's office with my knees knocking

and uh the guidance counselor was there the principal was there my dad and my mom was there they were weeping like like children and I couldn't imagine what was wrong and the and the principal stood up and said uh Morel uh we brought your parents here today uh to announce that you have won a full 5-year scholarship to Louisiana Tech University and that your college your tuition room and board and books and living expenses will be paid in full for 5 years one of the most prestigious scholarships from the state of Louisiana and I was a Cotton Patch Kid and and and and the when I went that was in in the end of May the 19th of May and then on the uh first day of June I registered at Louisiana Tech University and walked into my first dormatory room and the first words I I heard when I walked in that dormatory room at 4:14 K's Hall Rustin Louisiana was praise thee Lord I said praise The Who and he stood there with coke bottle bottom glasses on and greas down hair this was a sick this is the middle of the Vietnam War I said Praise of who he said praise the Lord don't you know who the Lord is and I said I'm afraid not but when I told God I couldn't find him he'd had to find me I'm looking Square in the face of a young man the only United Pentecostal kid on the campus of 14,000 students and God accidentally put me in the room with him I am the only person he has ever won to God but friend did he win a Lulu I would be stupid to lose sight of what God has done for me I would be stupid to think that last week I sat down in my brand new 1996 GMC Z71 off-road extended cab third door leather seat truck and think I did that on my own I would be stupid to think that the suit that I wear here this morning is a suit that I provided for myself right I don't ever want to lose sight of the fact I don't want to get so blind that I'm being blessed all around and think that those blessings come by my own energy folks there is a blindness that sets in when hardness comes there is a blindness that sets in and we fail to see the blessings of God Upon Our Lives anymore we come to church like we deserve the church we come to church life we deserve everything that we have I'm going to tell you something ladies and gentlemen I am what I am and you are what you are by the grace of almighty God hallelujah amen can I have an amen I I if you think I am a self-made preacher you are dead wrong when I started evangelizing I had a $19 uh navy blue suit that was so thin and and so wore out I was ashamed of it and and somebody gave me some money and I went and bought a brand new $29 double knit suit and I didn't have any money to have the alterations done and my wife decided to do the alterations herself and when she H my pants up she cut the pants legs off too short and the first two years of evangelizing I evangelize with a suit that you can see the top of my socks with and the other evangelist called me a nerd I I would have identified with you in your church I'd have been a nerd in your church for a fact I was the most first class nerd you've ever seen in your life and I'd go to conferences in California and different districts I'd be in and other evang would laugh at me and we never did fellowship with any other evangelist because we were too Nerdy To Be A to be fellowshipped with but what was really irritating was everywhere I went we was having 100 150 175 and 200 people reive the baptism of the Holy Ghost because God was blessing this nerd I may not have had long enough pants but friend I stayed on my knees in prayer and fasting until God broke through those churches I would preach at now do you think that I did that on my own or there were blessings of God that was following my life brother Davidson there is a blessing of God that we cannot get away from and we start to confess the blessings of God they keep on flowing and keep on flowing but when

then said he under what is the kingdom of God like and where unto shall I resemble it it is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and cast into his garden all right and it grew it grew and waxed the great tree you know it's amazing how people can look at the tree and forget where it came from they're blind to the seed that brought it amen read and the fouls of the air larged in the branches of it and again he said where unto shall I liken the kingdom of God it is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leaven uhhuh and he went through the cities and Villages teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem uhhuh then said one unto him Lord are there few that be saved and he said unto them watch this now strive to enter in at the Straight Gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in say like this straight As the gate and there is the way and few be that be that that that that go therein and friend that's our Candlestick to prove that our churches are always going to be small and what God was showing them was was how blind they were but but when you're being led by the spirit you can walk any narrow path that you need to walk through and God will be with you amen something happens after blindness that I think is extremely important uh brother uh uh Moore go to chapter 14 and verse number one and this is really where I'm trying to get to and it came to pass now now I I would love to be sve on these next two but I feel the spirit of an Axe and a hammer and a sledge in my hand all right read and it came to pass as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees he went the house of one of the chief phes the read bread on the Sabbath day bread on the that they watched him and they watched him and behold there was a certain man there was a certain man before him which had the dropy all right and Jesus answered and spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees saying he spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees saying is it lawful to heal on theb lawful to heal on the Sabbath day all right read and they held their peace uh-huh they didn't open their stupid mouth all right they did not open their voice that's a little sve there read and he took him took him and healed him healed and let him go let him go and answered them saying which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day they were they were mad son they were mad right because he healed and defiled their their sacred holy place on the Sabbath day all right read and they could not answer him again to these things they couldn't answer him and he put forth a parable to those which were bitten when he marked how they chose out of the chief rooms saying unto them when thou art bitten of any man to a wedding sit not down in the highest room hold just a minute when we become critical and judgmental I went have to eat with a couple pastor and his wife some time ago we had had one of them brush Arbor spasm meetings you can tell how good a church we have by how much of the shirt tail hangs out little shirt tail hangout pretty good service half shirttail service good but friend when when you when you walk out and there's people who got the whole shirt tail out that's a full shirt tail service friend and we had about a 3/4 shirt tail service that night and it was very good and there was a woman that had a little earbob in her ear I don't know what you call those little things but a little bitty little bitty thing in her ear and that was probably 900 950 maybe 975 people in the service that night and he spotted her of all PE you would had to You' almost have had to have a telescope to find it and he spotted it and there was a guy that had a little thin Mexican style mustache on and he spotted him 973 people most of them living right but we are so trained to find that which is wrong

and he wanted to know when we was eating if I preached against that kind of mess I looked at him and I thought this guy is a first class jerk I will never take him to dinner again and I'll never invite him back to my platform because he said there the whole service and stewed because somebody was shouting in my church with a ear stud in her ear and sted because there was a guy with a mustache was shouting down an aisle and I said first of all they are not members of our church and I caught myself trying to make excuse for them and I stopped right in the middle I said dear God I'm not going to convince them anyway your friends don't need any EX explanation and the enemies won't receive one when we get to the place that we are are are hypocritical and judgmental of every single thing we that's got to be a miserable life can I have an amen you got to be a poor miserable darling that all you ever see is what's wrong in the church what's wrong with other preachers what's wrong with other congregations can I have an amen am I know this doesn't apply to Alabama but y'all might need this down in Texas where you are can I have a witness somebody it is important first of all that that if somebody offends us we got to forgive I've already talked about that but it's the spirit of criticism that's killing us all right my god brother Libby is a superintendent brother Ellis as a superintendent and and and and and there's there's always going to be somebody again you and I I'm going to pray for y'all that y'all get voted out and be blessed amen preachers are the most hard-headed obnoxious jerks to put up with than any other breed on Earth remind me of the story of the Chinese emperor and the and the Russian uh uh president and the and the president of of Israel prime minister of Israel and they was having a luncheon and the Russian uh was wanting to brag he stood up and he said he said I want yall to know that I have the hardest job in the world I am the President of 250 million communist and the Chinese emperor he B he said ah he said I have the hardest job I am the premere of 1 billion subjects and uh they look turned and looked over to the Israeli uh prime minister and he was just eating very quietly and they said what you got to say about that he said well he said actually I have the hardest job I am the President of 3 million presidents we live in a world where you can't please everybody every day of every week and every minute of every day can I have an amen and we got to be careful L we get in the spirit of criticism and judgmental attitudes that we will destroy everything around us so that we cannot function as a body of Christ every woman in your church is not going to like the color scheme so vote on it get 51% on the color and go for it and those that voted against it keep you stinking mouth shut and quit criticizing because you didn't get your way and judging everything because you didn't get your what the spirit of criticism and judgmental attitudes is destroying a lot of our churches and and we're fighting over things that don't amount to a hill of beans amen can I have it amen amen we have we have in our church uh a a Care Group uh Ministry that we have uh uh dinners uh after funerals for the family and we have a standard menu it is H scalloped potatoes uh ham and green beans and fruit salad and and and hot rolls and and iced tea and coffee and uh dessert what uh different kinds of desserts and uh this we got a lady in our church she ain't even she's not even close to getting to the grave and she is already stewing about what we're going to serve at her funeral dinner and she made a special appointment to come by and say that when I die at my funeral dinner I do not want a ham dinner and I'm looking at this this lady and I'm thinking I got all the nuts in my church

and that's the kind of junk that's destroying a lot of our churches when we are majoring on the the the ridiculous and we're leaving the major things undone we're afraid to bring somebody into our church uh uh and get saved because after all they're not like us can I have an amen now I'm going to close with this I got one more and I want to I want to give you one more example of what I'm talking about many years ago I went to preach a Revival in this church they could not afford to have an evangelist and so I told him I'd preach the Revival free I'd pay my own expenses and we had had about uh 75 or 80 people uh had received the Holy Ghost and one day my wife and I was was was driving towards a church and there was this girl hitchhiking on the side of the road and uh we had I had gone to school uh with her and we stopped and we picked her up she was the town street walker and uh my wife was with me and uh we invited Julie to church and she said where y'all going right now and I said well we're on our way to church and she said well I might as well just go on with you if y'all bring me home after church I'll just go with y'all now and so we brought a street walker to church that night she had shorts on and a kind of a halter top deal and uh she was barefooted and we brought her to church and and L and behold and during that service before I even got to preach the presence of God had filled that place and and she started weeping and the first thing you know she was at the front of that church and Julie received the Holy Ghost now Julie knows everybody and knows a lot of people that she probably ought not to have known and she made a lot of folks nervous because they were folks in the church that knew her also all right and uh and and the next night the next night Julie did not need a ride to church because she had found a ride to church with somebody else and she brought a carload of people to church now you can imagine what kind of people Julie brought to church like beg gets like and and the first thing you know Revival just broke out and we started praying the trashest people through you've ever laid your eyes on and and the more of the Trashy folks came in the church the quieter the church got and I could tell something had changed one evening when I was walking out the door at the church one of the leading members of that church said can I talk to you brother Cornwell and I said sure you can talk to me he said uh have you noticed what kind of people you're attracting I said uh well not really I mean what are you talking about he said all these trashy people before we started this revival we had a nice church and and and and I church is just not like those kind of people I said just tell me what kind of people y'all are it started in my feet this burning sensation worked its way up my Cales my thighs my hip my belly my shoulder and out my mouth I said just what kind of people are y'all all right I said who Charles I remember when you wasn't saved for a fact I remember going in a bar and shooting pool and drinking where you was in a bar shooting pool and drinking and I said who are you to say that that you got an opportunity to come out of that and be saved and these people don't have the same opportunity we have become so critical and judgmental of everybody else as if though they don't fit in the house of God when the door of the house of God is big enough for everybody Hallelujah Alabama do you want a Revival then whosoever will let him come and take the Waters of Life freely come on Alabama I'm preaching to you can anybody come to your church and get saved and you'll disciple them and teach them and train them to be what God wants them to be amen and finally I'm not going to cover this one it it is self-explanatory but uh in verse 16 he said let's stand together a certain man made a great supper and B many and sent his servants at supper time to say to them that were bidden come come for all all things are now ready and they all with one consent began to make excuse and the first said I have bought a piece of ground I must need go and see it I pray the have excuse another said I five yolk of oxen and I go prove them another said I have married a wife and I'm hpack and I cannot come and the servant came and showed his Lord these things and the master I I got this memorized folks I'm not reading you know the story they made excuse of why they couldn't come and the Lord the Lord said go in the highways and Hedges and and and bring H the hall the lame the main and the blind that my house may be full because those that deserve the supper were now spiritually completely

spiritually dead the prodal son took his money his inheritance and he wasted it on righteous living can I have an amen I want you to notice that the father loved the son before he ever left and the father loved the son when he was away but the father also loved the son when he saw him coming back home again I want to tell you that God loved the churches every one of the churches when you look at the Lord walking in the midst of the seven golden candle sticks uh you cannot tell me that almighty God did not love every one of those churches uh and would have given anything to see those churches stop and turn around and come back as brother Libby said to their first love it is important for us to understand that God loves the prodal son can I have an amen I wonder what would happen if we would lay down our blindness or lay down our our covetousness or lay down our pride but friend you see the first step in turning back to God is tuning out the wrong voices the only step back you can't undo your hardness you cannot undo your pride the only thing that you can do is say I'm going to quit listening to the wrong voices and cast aside the wrong voices uh and once you stop listening to the wrong voices uh and you start hearing the right voice again and the preacher can touch you again it'll take care of your pride the preaching will take care of your hardness the preaching will take care of your non-productivity the preacher and the preaching of the word if it can reach you but when you're still listening to the wrong voices those things are going to stay in your heart I went to teach a Bible study Monday night a few weeks ago it was a little couple in our church asked if they could join this Bible study with me with this other couple and I said sure and I I was real leer because I hadn't been able to do anything with this couple in our church and uh they were having trouble in their family and having trouble in church and having trouble in their situation and they want to know if they could come into this Bible study uh and I said sure and so they came into this Bible study and a about three or four weeks later uh the the the lady that was in our church she raised her hand she said pastor she said uh i' I'd like for you to teach us everything that we are supposed to be doing so I can start doing what the church teaches I like to drop my teeth and they're not even false and I couldn't figure out I said I said well we'll get to that in the in the lesson on Holiness and she saidwell now I want to make sure I'm here now when you teach that lesson and I I I walked out there and my head was spinning and I told my wife when I got home I said so what in the world is happening and I realized that that this couple had been running with another family that had moved into our church from another District that did not teach and preach what we teach and preach and and they had been filling this young Couple full of junk that you don't have to obey your pastor you don't have to line up to the standards that's pastor's personal conviction and and and and and they had been been listening to that and and and all these other elements of hardness and pride and lack of productivity and and and all these other things had become a part of their life and as soon as they broke away from that other couple and and quit listening to the wrong voices and they started hearing the right voices again it is amazing at the changes this couple has made in such a short time can I have an amen if somebody's telling you that the days of Revival are over you need to quit listening to the wrong voices if the if if the voices are telling you that the United Pentecostal Church is going down and that we need to quit trying then you need to quit listening to the wrong voices if your church is not having Revival check and see who you're fellowshipping with can I have an amen if you're running with negative people and they're filling your heart with negativism no wonder it's affecting your church you need to fellowship with faith you need to fellowship with power you need to fellowship with worship you need to fellowship with praise am I making sense amen I want to hang around people that believe we can reach the city I want to fellowship with people believe we can have Revival I want to fellowship with people that think I'm somebody body instead of a nobody can I have an amen I want to fellowship with people that that believe that the United Pentecostal Church is the best thing since last bread yes sir if there anything better and we're so bad you go join that which

you think is better and good rids can I have an amen and the only solution to the problem is change voices just change what you're hearing if if I come up to you say Brother Louis ain't a very good super let me tell you he made some decisions really affected me I don't like him praise God and one of these days he's going to get your case prise and the first thing you know you start you start uh avoiding him and and and when you was in trouble and and your church needed a new roof and he came down and said brother let's get some brother together we'll help you with your roof but you forget that you know we live in a generation is what have you done for me lately generation and it's amazing how quick we'll turn on somebody because somebody is feeling our ear full of garbage that's right and all of a sudden this other brother moves to another District causes other supern problem and then Here Comes somebody that's in love with brother Lewis and said hey let's let's go down to brother Lewis's Place uh let's go eat lunch with him praise God and you sit down with him again and you start fellowshipping and have a wonderful time and you realize you were suckered in to listening to the wrong kind of voices and all you had to do was was just tune out the ugly tune out the negative tune out the sinful tune out the gossip and start filling your ears with the right thing and all the other things started healing themselves amen amen I appreciate so very much the invitation to be here uh in Alabama I'm I'm like brother Libby there's just a tremendous blessing to me every time I come here and I I love you very much I I I appreciate uh the committee that put this meeting together I appreciate brother Lewis being here our superintendent I appreciate uh brother Morgan and brother Libby participating more anything else it's what I receive here is just as much as what you receive just as important and I thank you for that there are 10 steps downward I did leave out one and it's kind of insignificant but there come a time when you get the spirit of preeminence when you're the only imported one in the district you're the only important one in the church the church will go down if I backslide the district will lose out if I leave the district that old Spirit of preeminence is a deadly filthy vile corrupt can I have an amen we found out America could go on with John without John F Kennedy can I have an amen we found out that the world could go on without Ronald Reagan can I have an amen and we all have our time on the scene and we pass our way our time on the scene we got to be careful Les we think that we're the only ones that can do things preeminence is the other one I left out God bless you thank you for being kind and patient let's give the Lord a hand clap praise