"The Fashion of This World"

1 Corinthians 7:31. 1 John 2:17. 1 Corinthians 17:31. I'm going to take the last line. For the fashion of this world passeth away. 1 John 21:17, the Apostle John writes, "And the world passeth away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." My subject tonight is the fashion of this world passeth away. Would you put your Bibles down and let's give the Lord one more great shout with praise. God bless. You may be seated. Everything changes. The thing that seems so important today is gone tomorrow. John, when writing could look back, the attractions in the beginning had faded and the world that he saw as a grasping young man had changed. For now, what he lived for his youth is now in ruins. It's a place called Jerusalem. What was left of that nation was now scattered while he's writing. So much of what he had been very tempted when he was a young man to chase. He is now writing because his youth has vanished. And he writes at the lust of this world and the things thereof are transcendent. And usually as we look at as it our life has passed that as soon as we get what we were after the chase seems like what it was all about and all of a sudden it's we have it and it wasn't there. It's impossible to achieve permanence for John says it passes away. Appetite and zest are momentary. They will not sustain you. They will desert you. Your bones are going to stiffen. Your eyes are going to quit focusing. Your muscles will not always obey commands. And your ears will grow dull of hearing. You cannot recapture your youth. Health spots are full of torture machines. Guaranteed to roll back the years and the fat. John said it's only an illusion. All the saunas and all the beauty shops and all the jogging and all the facelifts and all the memories won't bring back your youth. Ask the baseball play at 38 when he's through. Ask the average NFL running back at 32. Ask the American sprinter that his age usually hits around 30 will not always be there. With my age, I can look at men and women who were great athletes and used in what that would be called the social realm that are now has been at 45 and 50 years of age. You chase whatever until you are exhausted and you worn out and then you just tumble into the grave never to quite achieve what you thought was so very important in life. We buy the latest car. We buy the latest computer. We get the latest phone. And we get the nicest smart television set we can find. Tomorrow it is old stuff. Something new and better is on the market. Two years ago, they got me this. And Pastor Terry and others got me preaching off of this. And now I just got used to preaching off of this. And now it's gone to a mini iPad. So, we're supposed to change, I guess, and learn how to do the mini iPad. and things are changing. No truer words were ever spoken than these, for the fashion of this word passeth away. It is a race no mortal man or woman can win. For when the Lord was giving us that great message in Matthew 6 19:21, he told us what to do. He said, ' Don't lay up for yourselves treasures upon this earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourself treasures in heaven. What neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where the thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be. God's not asking a whole lot out of us tonight. One thing, he wants to be first. The spirit of this world is so fickle and uncertain and unpredictable. Where can I turn to find satisfaction and lasting peace? We find in a combination of all in Jesus Christ. It's called salvation, security, and satisfaction. When Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." He said, "I am the door, and by me if any man enter, he shall be saved." And you can't get there any other way. So tonight, I'm going to tell this whole congregation, you can't eliminate the spiritual. There is something inside of you that you cannot ignore and we'll live with it. You can try to silence it by feeding it things. You can try to silence it by giving it things, but the knocking is more persistent the more birthdays that you add to your life. Your body's not going to last even with expensive repairs. Your eternal soul asks for the equal time that you're giving to your temporary body. Jesus words ought to be enough when he said, "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Or, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" So I ask you all those things that all of us including the man in the pool pit, whose are those things going to be, who are you going to surrender your memberships, your credit cards, your ratings, your stocks, and your bonds, and your investments? Who are you going to leave that for? If you, if any, will stop to read the headstone that you put on your grave. Very few will know your birth date or your death date. Mother said at men's conference, "Your cradle rocks against your tombstone." And Jesus doesn't ask me to be a recluse. He didn't ask me to move to one of the states of Colorado and live in a cave with just a few cans. He simply asked me to understand everything that I'm pursuing is going to pass away. So I stand here as a human being like you, not as pastor of PA, trying to get me to understand that things are going to pass away. He assures me that in this life, if I will seek first the kingdom of God, he will add all these things unto me. Every one of us, everyone in this congregation, from district board to great leaders, we all are going to continue to be challenged by the things of this world. There's always going to be a call from that world. Daniel faced it. He said, "Let's determine this world against that world." And Daniel, the Bible said, purpose in his heart that he would not defile himself. He shone the doctrine of expediency and appeasement. And he said to the king, the most powerful ruler on planet earth. He said, "Prove thy servant, I beseech thee." He said, "I'll give you 10 days to make us better looking than any other sinner that you got in your crowd." And when you look when God got through with Daniel in 10 days, the king looked at him and said, "You are fair and you are 10 times smarter than any magician or any prophet or anybody that I have in my kingdom. It didn't take your God but 10 minutes to someone that was totally sold out to him." I think of Moses when he was chosen to be the next Pharaoh of Egypt by man. I see in scripture where when it was come to years he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer the afflictions with the people of God than to o enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect unto the recompense of his reward by faith he forsook this world by faith let me say scripture He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who was invisible. You might understand he was to be the next Pharaoh. But if he would have become the next Pharaoh, he would just be a stuffed mummy somewhere in a cave in Egypt tonight. But because he said, "I'm not living for this world. I'm living for another world." Every human being that knows anything about a Bible will know about the name Moses because he was living for this world, he was living for another world. Paul told the church at Philippi in 3:4-8, he said, "Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinkketh that he whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel. I am I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, I'm blameless. But what things were gained in me in this world? Those I counted loss for Christ. Yay, doubtless I count all things, but the loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them. There's you a pretty good four-letter word. Do count them but done that I may win Christ. He said when you look at everything in this world, he said you remember one thing. It's nothing but dung. And I am living for another thing. And God took that tough blaspheing persecutor and murderer. That man who was a Pharisee of Pharisees and he struck him with a light. He became another man. And he turned into something that wrote 13 books in your Bible because he said, "I'm not living for down here. I am living for another day. It's not about this earth. It's not about time. It's about eternity. It's the only thing that counts. I will look every one of my peers in the eyes and tell you. Look my past in the eye and tell you, even at your age, it's the only thing that counts. Everything else is going to fade. Youth will perish. Health will fail. Friends will forsake you. Real estate will fluctuate. Money will cheapen. Stocks will drop. Weather is uncertain. Knowledge passes. Boundaries change. Subdivisions rot. Defeat follows. Political victory. Business parters walk out on you. Stars fade. Names are forgotten. Soon you're on the unlisted and unsolicited. And the parties you used to be invited to, you're no longer invited to. Lay not up for yourself treasures in this earth. Where moth and rust doth corrupt, where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourself treasures in another world, where they will last. for eternity. And all he wants is to be first in our lives. He just wants to be first. I'm there. I guess maybe I'm moving there quicker than life would have anticipated. I'm there. I guess Mickey and I point to where things that used to matter were now downsizing. We're looking at our things that used to be so important and it's no longer important. That car that was new is now dented. And the things that we looked that was so very important is no longer there. There was a champ in a sport that everyone will know his name. His name was Muhammad Ali. Not long ago, he was interviewed by Sports Illustrated. And the writer was at his home in his big farm and ranch. And they asked Muhammad Ali. He said, "Where's all your trophies and where's all your belts and where's everything that you've won?" He said, "Oh, they're out in the barn." He said, "Well, can we see them?" And that old man that is now shaken in Parkinson. Can you imagine the man that could float like a butterfly and that could sting like a bee that captured that in seven months fought seven different champions and whipped them all in seven different countries? Can you imagine the man that grasp and caught and people ooed in a every time the alley shuffled most of things never finished. And when he thought he had lost in the 15th round before he fought Joe Frasier, he knocked out Oscar Bonavini in the last round and won it. He was a champ beyond all champ. Let's go see what's there. Now he's been over. Now Parkinson's disease has reduced him to a human being that is just shaking. And he takes him out into his barn. And when the man opened the doors, there's dust and there's cobwebs all over his belts. And there's there's trophies that are now with nothing but dust collectors. And there's dung from doves that is now resting upon him. And he said, "Champ, what are you doing?" And the champ looked back at him. And he said, "When you get to where I am, none of that matters anymore. What are we building for? What am I building a trophy case to? What I think is most important in my life?" No wonder Socrates said, "I go around doing nothing but persuading both young and old not to care for your body or your wealth in preference of your soul." There are now more than 30,000 self storage facilities in the country offering a billion square feet for people to store their stuff in. In the 1960s, there were no self storage buildings. We now spend 12 billion a year just to pay someone to store our stuff. At that time when we bought that, can you go with me in your mind? That that's in your storage, that that's in your garage, that that's in your attic. Do you remember how important it was when you looked at it? You thought you couldn't live without it. And now it's been reduced to a dust collector. Now it's reduced to an attic or storage born when you thought it was so very important. But God has told us that the things of this world will pass away. You won't find it in things. You won't find in things you purchase. You won't find it things you buy. It all passes away. William Randolph Hurf was a stuff collector. He had a 35-year-old Egyptian statues. He had medieval tapestries. He had centuries old handcarved things all over his house. Some of the greatest works of art are all tied hung in the Hurst Castle. And when he when he got ready to build, he said, "I'm not going to build something small. I'm going build something big." And buddy did. He did. 72,000 square feet is the size of his house to put all of his stuff in. He required property for his house in California. 265,000 acres. He originally owned 50 mi of California coastline. Think how many billions he was worth. He collected stuff for 88 years. Then let me tell you what happened to him. He died. Now people walk through the Hurst house, pay their money by the thousand to see his tapestry in art. Now, his kids who haven't died yet are just really pre-dead people. And I am looking at my peers, my friends, my dear friend and family who's been going through hell on earth. And that's not a cuss word. Look at all my friends over here who are so very dear to me. But I have to tell you, you're nothing but a pre-dead person walking around somewhere. We can't grasp that. It never happens to us. But we're on this journey just to try to get for ourselves. And it may be even be in ministry. It may even re it may be power. I don't know what we may grasp in the organization for something. It's just something that we're on a pursuit on. When God is saying time out, will you please forget going for your power and your money and your passions. And when you stop and understand that I want to spend some time with you and I want an intimate relationship with you and I want to work with you because everything in this life, your house, this organization, everything that's man-made is going to pass away. And the only thing that's going to last is what you've done for Jesus Christ. Pushes us. It drives us. It goes on us. Down the few miles from here is Oakdale. In Oakdale, there is a prison. And let me tell you, the prison is full of people that was driven by this passion. In the federal prisons of America, we've got CEOs, we've got elected officials, and we've got preachers because there was stuff that everybody had to get. Didn't matter who I had to cross or how illegal I had to get. I got to get stuff. And the Lord said, "What are you pursuing? What are you after? What are you going for? What are you living for? Why do you see it's such a hard job to live for me? Why is it so hard for you to think that there's a consecration in your walk with me? Why is that so hard when everything down here that you've invested in is going to pass away and nothing is going to last? We got to quit living for this world. We got to start living for another world. That is the only thing that matters. Where are you saying? Jerry, would you stand up? I just see you sitting there. Would you come here? Would you come out? I'm going to use Jerry. He didn't know this. I'm going to use him because I know he's not rich because he gives too much money to missions. Well, that didn't get an amen, but it's the fact. Jerry, where are you staying tonight? Country in. Country in. Y'all got here Tuesday. Jerry, did you tell Gina to go draw out all your money and get your CDs and come to LA and buy all the couches and go to uh snack jewelry and buy the best china and we're we're there to Friday and but I don't want to when I'm there I'm just there to Friday but I want to get the best they got. I don't want to live in country sweets. I'm we're going to take everything out. We're going to put the best bed. You get one of them that goes up and down. You get one, your side gets hard and my side can get soft and you get all this kind that bed that'll work up and down. Go get me the best pictures you can put on that wall. We're going to make this motel. We're just here to Friday, but I'm going to take everything I got. I'm going to take everything I have saved for 61 years. I'm 59, whatever. I'm going to take everything I got and I'm going to fix up my motel until Friday. That's right. It's crazy. And we all know we only got three score in 10. We only know that we're here for just a period of time. And we're down here fixing pictures. We're down here arranging. We're down here buying for this life. We're down here planning. We're not here for long. The Lord is getting ready to come. Don't be here fixing up your life. Don't be here fixing up your league. You're not here long enough. You're not here long enough. You're not here long enough. It's just not here long enough. It's going to pass away. Money is not where it is, folks. Money is not where it is. I need it and you want it, but not at the expense of losing your soul. It's just not where it is. You better get your budget intact where you're not missing church to work two jobs to take care of your stuff. It's not where it is. I'd rather move in a tent. I'd rather ride around in a bicycle and to know my soul was saved than to have the best you can have in this life and not have my soul saved. WH Vanderbilt said, "The care of $200 million is enough to kill anyone. There is no pleasure in it." John D. Rockefeller said, "I've made millions, but they brought me no happiness." Andrew Carnegie said, "Millionaires seldom smile." Henry Ford, who invented and built the Ford automobile, said, "I was happier when I was a mechanic than when I invented the Ford." I made my mind up. It's not where it is. I guess my birthdays made me there. I'm going to be very transparent. We had always been that way. No, not young preachers. Not when I was your age. No, Jent. Not when I was your age. No preachers in your 30s. Not when your age. It was probably important. If I was preaching a camp meeting or a conference, it was probably something along those lines is important. Things I'm talking about. That's things. It was probably important where I was or where I was going or what kind of recognition. But the more birthdays I have, the less important those things become. And I stand here as a man that's soon to be 64 years old. And I'm here to tell any young minister that lets me say anything into your life, listen to me tonight. The things of this world is going to pass away. And the only thing that's going to last is the things that you've done for Jesus Christ is the only thing that's going to last. This place and I drove on it Tuesday night. Of course, my message was on it, but I I have trouble pulling up the POA with my dad. And then this campground does something to me. I know it does you. And I know it does you. And I I know it does you. And when I drive on this campground, my dad starts rolling my mind. I'll never forget when I was six or seven years old, a tornado came through here and it knocked that end of the tabernacle down. It was just crumpled. And my dad, the men, yeah, both ends. Brother Tenny said, "I didn't remember this one alltogether, but I remember that because I guess maybe that's where our men were were sectioning the word. We came here and we cleaned it up." I'll never forget how those men were eternal conscious. They never had a trouble with apostolic churches. They never had a trouble because they had a way of somehow keeping people focused on the eternal. Somehow I have failed in PA of keeping people focused on the eternal. I don't know whether it's me or whether it's them, but I'll talk to you about that in just a moment. But I I I don't know where that that connect is breaking in all of our churches of the importance of the internal things. I'll never forget when I was a just a kid and the platform was over there and brother Kershaw was preaching and they were in the Middle East war and he was he's from uh one of he's from Syria over there and and this is literally this is the truth. He was preaching and they'd been talking all week because Israel was at war and all the preachers we'd hear on the ball field. I was 16 or 17 years old said when they cut that bobb wire the Lord is coming and brother Kershaw and it happened and that night brother Kershaw walked out and he had his his hat on he had his robe on and he said they've cut the bobwire brother we didn't need a scripture I was sitting back there with some girl I was very happy but when they made that announcement I started going on hurdles over these pews it's the closest thing in a church that I've ever saw a stampede It scared the heaven into me. Never forget when brother Black was preaching one night. He was over here and he was saying, "The Lord is coming. The Lord is coming. The Lord is coming." In fact, they've called our nation on alert. Well, he didn't know that we had a bunch of airmen here. So, our airman piled out of here, went to England Air Base. Well, we wasn't on national alert at the time. He was just scaring us to death. And I'll never forget when brother Foss he got to preaching on hell one night and oh, he was preaching on hell and God, I could feel the flames burning around me. And all of a sudden, he said, "You going to be lost." I thought I saved, but I felt like I was lost. And about that time, he had somebody blow a trumpet from behind the stage. And folks, it was over. Oh, God. I don't know if that's a way to preach. I'm not saying that we need to go back to maybe that kind of just I I don't know. But I know there was something in our camp meetings and our youth camps where when we walked on this place, there was something that connected us to the eternal and to another land. Something something something's got to grab us that we understand life is the vestibu and eternity is the building. Life is the intru introduction. Eternity is the book. You've got to understand life is the ordors. Eternity is the meal. Life is the daybreak. Eternity is the eternal endless days. It is but a prelude. It's only the opening. It's only the grand. And then it's all over. You better quit worrying about your calendar. And you better quit worrying about your agenda because the only thing that is important is his calendar and his agenda. Nothing is more important than saving your soul. This is a game called Monopoly. Anybody ever play Monopoly? Take it out. Boardwalk. That's right, brother Tenny. Parkplace. That's right, Brother Tenny. Here we go, man. There's ones, there's fives, there's 20s, there's 50s, there's hundreds, man. Right there. There's those dice. Whoop. We had to play with a spinner. You better not know when to hold them and know when to fold them. You better know how to spin it. We would spin and we would get our boardwalk. We'd put them and we'd get our hotels and we'd get our houses. We'd pl go gold. And here we go. We're building. We're building. Look what I'm building, man. Look at my new house. Look at my threec car garage. I'm still asking my PE pastor whether I should pay on the net or the gross. But I sure am still buying houses and lands because I want to find out if I can pay just on net or gross. I want you to make that decision. Come on, Pastor Terry, you make that call. Do I pay on the net or do I pay on the gross? Come on, let me know what to do here because I want to keep as much as my stuff as I can, even if it's from God. So, I get everything established here and I got my houses and I got my land. All of a sudden, I've won the game, man. I'm stuffing money and I've got hundreds in this pockets and I got thousands in this pocket. I got a CD and I got a 401k and I've got it stashed away. I don't give nothing to missions, but I sure got money. I make sure my kids aren't going to have to want for anything. They'll have it made. I got money everywhere. You just ask for it and I got it. And then all of a sudden the game is over and you collect everything and you put your houses and your hotels back in and you've reached 75 80 years of ode or you become like a man that changed our camp meeting Merl Ewing who at 69 years of age was promoted to these sunny banks of sweet deliverance. Then you know what they do? They fold the game back up and they put it in a box. And the game that you live for with all your hotels and your houses and all your money and all your thousands, it goes in a box and they take you out to a cemetery and they put you 6 feet under the grave and what you thought was so important, it suddenly doesn't mean a thing. It's all over. You're reduced to a box. Throw that picture up there. Let me show you your next move. There you go. Look at it. There's your next move. There's your next house. That's where you going. And you better understand there's nothing in your life that's going to keep you from going there. It is appointed under man once to die. And after that comes the judgment. And the only thing that matters is what you've done for Jesus Christ. Oh, but I'm going to do something. But I know I've gone to church, but let me give you one scripture that we fly over in Ecclesiastes. In the place where the tree fallth, there shall it be. Brothers and sisters, however you live is how you're going to die. And when the tree falls, it cannot be moved. So don't think you can live an unrighteous life and die a righteous death. Don't think that the tree can fall and lie and when it's dead, you can move it. You can't move that tree. That's why he said in Revelation, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust steal. He which is filthy, let him be filthy steal. But he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him be holy still. I'm living to be righteous. I'm living to be holy. I am not living for this world." So, I don't know when the last time and I'm going to walk to the pool pit at the PLA. I don't know when the last time that I'm gonna walk behind this sacred pool pit at our campgrounds, but somewhere sometime, oh God, help me. Someday I'm going to make my last trip to a pull pit and I will preach my last sermon and I will give my last article in the book of Ap in the month of April and I'll close with it in a few moments. You'll understand why. But I made my mind up. I'm a dying man preaching to dying men. And because of that, I intend to focus my preaching on the esquetology doctrines of the Bible. subjects dealing with last things and final things. Heaven, hell, the judgment, the coming of the Lord, the second coming of the Lord, the revelation of the Antichrist. Every man must be born again of water and spirit. There's no exception to the rule because night is coming. So, I'm beseeching you I'm begging you. I'm telling you. I don't know if this is my last night. I am scheduled for next year, but I don't know if this is my last night. I don't know if I will live or die. I don't know if I will make it a year. But I can't wait to say when my children get older or when I have more time or when my schedule is worked out or when I get this paid off. If you're living from what you see here on this platform, look it all over. Get a good look at it. Please get a real good look at it. It is all temporary. It will all come to an end, but you never will. All of this will come to an end, but you never end. It will leave you with a terrible impenetus if this is what you have lived for. I read of a preacher and I heard what he preached and it moved me so deeply when he walked around and labeled everything on his platform. It's a word that we don't hear or radio or see on television ads or TV. The temptations that play out in our soul. It's the word that could have saved the rich fool in Jesus' day. He just one one word. He didn't need to know Mike Williams' vocabulary. He didn't need to speak and know how language and arts. He didn't need to speak five languages. The rich fool just needed one word. And if he would have put it on his barns and if he would have put it on his farm crops, it would have changed the life. If one man could have learned one word, temporary. Temporary. Temporary. Temporary. Temporary. Temporary. Temporary. When you get to the end of your life, temporary. Temporary. Temporary. Temporary. Temporary. Temporary. Temporary. Andrew, help me peel that for me, please. Temporary. There it is in the middle. Thank you very much, Andrew. Here, stay with me. Thank you. Just follow me around. Thank you. Temporary. Oh, that's a good looking Mercedes. Mickey, God's blessed us with that. Lexus is three years old, but we've been blessed. There you go, Mick. There it is. There you go. Okay. Hey, all you wait guys, I love your walking out. You need to not preaching against working out, but you can go there for an hour or two hours and you can't read your Bible for 5 minutes. Go pump your weights. You can't enter a prayer room at 5:30 to help pray your pastor and pray somebody through. You go pump the weight. When you look at it, remember it's temporary. Hey lady, oh your purses and your shopping. The galleria's in Houston and Dallas is in New Orleans. When you get the fashion thing to wear to camp meeting so we can show off in front of all of our friends, including myself. When we go there, you remember everything you've purchased is temporary. It's going away. Hey, all you great hunters of the great district of Louisiana. I'm one of them. I love to duck hunt. I love to deer hunt. I don't get to do much of it, but when I go, I sure enjoy it. You know, all those hours we spend tracking that buck. You know, all those hours we spend filling up those feeders and bending those deer stands and then we can't get to church on time and we can't prayer shifts and we can't do things for God. We can't do things that change his life. You remember that buck and God blessed me to get a good one this year and so did Gentry. It's a good buck, but I have something placed on it. It's temporary. It's not here very long. I look at all this down here and I look at all the sports. Oh, I'm for LSU. I cheer for LSU. I I I thank God for LSU. I hope they win the national championship. I'm going to tell you what we'll wear their colors. I've got people that wear purple and gold on sun Sunday morning after LSU's beat Alabama, which that's very seldom now, but we just a joke there. Do you remember LSU's passing? Hey Saints fan, will your jersey have we ever worn a Jesus jersey? Do we ever get as passionate about Christ as we do sports? Remember, all your sports are going to pass away. Remember everything that we do. Saw a bumper sticker today and I thought about going home and telling Pastor Terry and our creative team. It said, "My kid is on the honor row at" and they named I think it was St. Francis Cabrini. I clap for them because that is commendable. But I wonder what it'd be like if we got bumper stickers in our churches. My kid serves the Lord at POA. Money, money, money. It's a God. It's M. He didn't say there's anything wrong with he said it's the root of all evil when you make it your God. We put it there. You remember all the money that you have. Go ahead. Seek your career. Become CEO. You great men, I love you. I know what you're pursuing and I'm praying for you. I'm praying for you. But don't lose your soul pursuing it. I thank God for you men. I thank God for a congressman. I know what you're after. Don't lose your soul pursuing it. Don't lose your family. Nothing is important as those things that are there. Not an office, not a pull pit, not a church. Nothing is important as the eternal values of heaven. Don't let anything in this life, your business, trying to become head of your company, God, this is all coming out of me, that's it in my notes. But I've got people that have moved out of the POA that's taken churches in another city, and I have checked, and Pastor Terry has checked. There's not even a church in that city, but they got a promotion and they got a $5,000 a year raise. And they'll leave a church where their kids are on fire for God to go to a city where there is no church because they got a raise on their job temporary. I'd find out if I had a church, if I had to live in a tent, I'd make sure I had my kids and apostolic church. That's the only thing that matters. Temporary temporary temporary that house is going to fade away. John surprised me tonight. I called him, asked him come in. Those of you who don't know John, he's professional golfer. He played second at the New Orleans tournament, the Zurich. He's doing very well. He's made quite a few hundred,000 already this year. But John, as your pastor, I'm going to tell you one thing, bud. You got to practice golf eight days and eight hours a day, and you got to give it everything you got. But John, when you win the Masters and John, when you win the US Open, and John, when you win the Zurich Classic and everybody kisses that trophy and holds it up, you remember it's temporary. You remember it's going to pass. You remember the only thing that matters is the eternal. This book outweighs any trophy. Gentry, if I could see you hold that book up and kiss it. If I know you're memorizing that book. Oh, I'm not living to see him lift a trophy. I'm not living to see preach at a general conference. I'm living to see him save. I'm living to see love this book. I'm living to see him have a walk with God. Temporary. Temporary. Temporary. All of our music. All of our singing. Temporary. Go ahead, musicians. Play your songs and sing your songs and never pray and fast. Have a love for truth. Go ahead. But it's temporary. Go ahead and get up there without the anointing of God and on the emotions. It's temporary. It's temporary. It's all passed away. It's going away. It's temporary. It's temporary. You need to leave this. I wish every pastor could do it could go home and make temporary signs. We ought to put it at the front door of our house. We ought to put it on the door of our automobile. We ought to place it right there that when we open that door, it screams at us temporary. So, I'm not going for red stickers. I'm going for blue stickers. And that's the eternal. Here's what's eternal. My family big. That's eternal. Jen, that's eternal. pastor. My sweet pastor, I love my pastor. Taking care of my pastor is eternal. My pastor's wife, that's eternal. every soul in here. My student pastor and his wife, that's eternal. My district superintendent is eternal. That's all that matters is the eternal. Everything else, oh, by the way, that person that I dislike the most is eternal. That preacher that I can't forgive, that's eternal. That person that ripped me off that I'm still carrying that grudge, that's eternal. That person that violated me when I was a child, he or she is eternal. That's all that really matters. God, family. Oh, by the way, myself eternal. So I'm living my life. He that winth souls is wise. Brian Susan, would you stand? That's the assistant DA. He called me and uh he said, "Pastor, can you come to my office?" He was a member of another denomination. He said, "My wife is leaving." I said, "No, yes." I went to his office. I was leaving camp. I drove up in his parking lot and he came out. But I said, "Get Susan to come see me tomorrow." They came to see me. I counseledled and put them in counsel with Sharon Turner and I taught a Bible study to him. I baptized them in Jesus name. They received the Holy Ghost. Evidence was speaking with tongues and they're becoming fast leaders in our church. That's something I got, Jerry, that's going to last. That's something that God's going to make. Come here, Willie. Come here, Willie. Here's a Willie boy. Let me tell you about Willie. Mickey Mangan is something else. She has a bus route, but she goes down into the African-American community and she drives down there and she looks for joints to eat at. So she found this place down on Main Street down in the quarters and she walked up and this man greet her. In fact, he's not open tomorrow, but I don't tell you what, he's got the best ribs and fried catfish you've ever put your mouth on. It's called Georgees. But we'd all go there, me and Pastor Terry, and we started taking our friends there, and everybody said, "That's the best I've ever eaten." And I realized the other day that I never witnessed old Willie. So one day I said, "Willie, you got to come to church. You got to have your life changed." And so Willie said, "Okay." And he came one Sunday. And Willie couldn't take it no more. And he said, "I'm ready." God filled him with the Holy Ghost. I baptized him in Jesus name. So you know what I got? I got an eternal thing right there. I got something that's going to matter when the trumpet sound. My house isn't going to matter. But the day I won him to the Lord, it changed my age. I got a crown that one day I'm going to throw with the Lord. I got to quit. I got to quit. But I'm going to tell you about one more soul that God just allowed me the privilege to win to the Lord. I've gone this soulwinning business. Ginger from Suburban Gardens just baptized her. Willie, you got your or you got your graduation certificate Sunday, didn't you? Would you give him a hand? He just finished orientation at the POA. He's now part of our church. And so Mickey and I very busy day and at the POA it's always a busy day. And so I told Mickey, we were on a Daniel fast. I said, 'I'm going to get salads and I'm coming by to get you and we're going to the park. Ain't that sweet? And we're going to sit under a tree and we're going to sit down at a table and we're going to eat. And I was sitting there eating and I was just praying nobody'd come by because Mickey and I were having precious moments about this guy time this guy rides up on a bicycle. He said, "Sir, could you spare a few dollars?" Said, "My family's back at the house." and said, "My family doesn't have any food." I said, "Sir, I sure will." I said, "We preach that." I said, "I pastor the POA. We preach that." I said, "Sir," I said, "I want to tell you what we're going to do. You give me your address and I'm going to bring you bags of grocery." He said, "No." He said, "Please." I said, "No, sir." And he got on his bicycle. I said, "Where do you live?" He said, "River Road." And he took off. I said, "Sir, wait, tell me that, sir. Sir, and I never saw that man again." I said, "We're going to look for that man, Mickey." She said, "Well, don't buy groceries until you go look for him." I said, "Now, that's a good idea." So, we put in our GPS, River Bin Road, and I looked all up and down for a white bicycle and a man with a cap on his head. And I never could find him, Chris. I never could find him. But I turned around, I saw a man sitting on a porch. I said, "Sir, Pastor Mangan." He said, "Yes." I said, "I'm looking for a man on a bicycle. We want to help." He said, "You're Pastor Mangan." Said, "Yes." I said, "We were going to buy some groceries. I don't need any groceries." He said, "I got a good job, but I was at the end of my life. I don't know if Michael's here." He was going to come with him, but he had to work late. Michael, if you're here, scream out. But he said, "I I had to work late." But he said, "I want you, pastor, to know that I was ready to give up on life." He came to church that Sunday. I preached on the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Michael hit the altar. We baptized him in Jesus name. He got the Holy Ghost a few weeks ago. It's eternal things. It's all that matter. All that matters. Three weeks ago, I was sitting in the hospital with Mickey, I mean with mother, and my phone rings and it's my dear friend Kenneth Phillips, my best man, the man who raised me. He lived at nine. Prospect we lived at 10. Mother and daddy went to Alexandria in 1950 and Kenneth was 10 years old and I was five months. He taught me how to play ball. But the man changed my life. Any of you preachers that think this man or those men or any of these men on this platform affected your life, that's what Kenneth Phillips did to my life. He literally outside of my father and mother transformed me probably more than any other man and all of his families in our church. She said,"Anthony, I got to have you do something." I said, "Yes, Kenneth. What is it?" He said, "Well, they found out today I got cancer and they've given me four to 12 months to live." I said, "No, no." So, we've been on this journey for three or four weeks. Today, he's so weak, he just don't want anything. He's a very weak man. Cancer is beginning to emaciate his body, but he built his life on a purpose of the eternal things. And when you get a phone call, he told me Saturday night he was broken. And Kenneth, this campground loves you and Wanda. And I'd like for us to let them know that right now. Would you do that? And he said, "Anthony, when that phone rang and I heard, Mr. Phillips, your body is full of cancer." And he gave me what he gave me. He said, "You let me tell you something and please listen to me because you won't believe me, but please listen to me, Raymond." He said, "The things I was worried about, I was no longer worried about." He said, "The things that I thought was so important, they're no longer so important." Because when you're given just days and weeks and months, the only thing that matters is what you've done for Jesus Christ. It won't be this. It won't be this. It won't be this. It won't be this. The only thing will matter what you've done for Jesus Christ. John Gaddy went to New Ale on his tombstones inscribed. When he came, there was not a Christian among us. And when he left, there was not a heathen among us. April 27th, 2013. Never happened to me before. Don't really know if I ever want it to happen to me again. Jim, I'm so glad my family is here. Pastor Tier and I can't sleep on Saturday nights because we're consumed with passions on Sundays. And it was one of those Saturday nights, an hour and a half, I was awake and I doze back off. And I woke up at 4 and I said, "God, let me doze back off. I've been tired. I've been hitting it. I just need a little bit more sleep." And I fell back asleep. and John, I've never had a dream or a vision that I know that I've ever preached about, but I had a dream. And I was driving down the road and this house was on fire. Raymond, I've never had a dream. I've had dreams, but never a dream like this. And this house was on fire. And I ran up and I said, "Anybody home? Hey, is anybody home? Your house is on fire." And a lady came to the door and I said, "Ma'am, please. Is anybody?" "Yes, I got some older people." I said, "Please get out. Your house is on fire." Said, "Give me your baby and go get them." She said, "Okay." And she handed me the baby and I turned back around and I looked and she wasn't coming. I said, "I can't I can't stand here." So, I laid that baby down on the ground and I went back and opened the door. I said, "Ma'am." And I looked and this lady was standing in front of a mirror and she was pumping and she was getting herself all pretty and she was getting herself dressed and I was screaming, "Ma'am, oh ma'am, your house is on fire. Get them out. Please get them out." And I woke up and Mickey will tell you I was sweating and I was shaking and I was screaming, "Get out. Get out." I don't know what happened, but that was my dream. And tonight, I've come to this camp meeting and I'm looking at every family in this building and I'm screaming, "This world is on fire." Jesus said in Revelation, he's going to burn it up. Get out of here. Cut loose from this world. Cut loose from everything. Cut loose from everything that has you bound. Cut loose from everything that you are attacking. house is on fire. It's eternal things. Tonight, the altar call is to the families that want to live for the eternal and not the temporary. The altar call tonight is red, stay in your seat, blue, come to the altar. It's a contest tonight between the red team and the blue team. What are you raising your family for? When you become district superintendent or if it would be governor, senator, or president of the United States, when you get it all and when it's all said and done, what is going to be eternal and what is going to be temporary? What is going to matter in your life? What is going to be significant when it is all said and done? It's the only thing that really matters. Balcony, I know it's hard for you to come down. If you want to turn around at your seat and turn that into an altar. If you want to try to get down, come on. You'll have time to get out. Both gates will be open. You can go out the back or the front. But it's whether we're going to live for the temporary or whether we're going to live for the eternal. What are you living for? What is your life all about? What are the things that really matter? Hallelujah.