Wednesday Night Bible Study

praise the lord everyone we greet you tonight in that wonderful lovely all powerful magnificent magnanimous name of jesus what a joy it is to see each one of you in the house of the lord tonight i announced wednesday was a sunday morning i was going to show you a one-of-a-kind t-shirt i've never seen one like it i've seen them of all kind and one the other day said uh try to be the person your dog thinks you are i thought that one was pretty good but um i want to show you uh a recent t-shirt i'd never seen this one before and i think brother derek's got it ready let's show it can you can you can you read that one right there look for my i'm looking for my urban highway kind of love now isn't that great and i found it a lot look at that would you looking for my irwin highway love and of course you've all heard my little recitation or my little uh poem concerning the irwin highway i was uh over here at church uh yesterday and the children were all coming in it must have been k-5 it was a long line of children going to the cafeteria and as i was standing out of their way one of the little boys i believe very last one he asked me something several got out of line and gave me a hug and and he asked me something i didn't hear it and i said what did you say he said are you old i i got quite a kick out of that he said are you old and um of course um uh i don't know if you heard me or not but i i sure am uh compared to those children but i think it had to do with that they're weak they all dressed up like elderly folks and i got a a big kick out of that and we're going to go into the word of the lord tonight and in this i'm i'm continuing last week's message uh and a little uh reverse manner and um tell you well first of all uh could could we get my topic on the screen right now and let me give you my topic first i don't usually do that but my topic tonight is compromise is not compassion compromise is not compassion now last week we uh we gave a bible lesson on uh compassion and and and compromise and we uh we tried to uh compare it and tonight i i want to teach this lesson or get started on it and of course as you know i watch the clock and i have a quitting time and if i'm not finished i've got another wednesday night to go at it or whenever but every little story that i've heard throughout the years you've heard all of them but you're very kind to always act like you haven't heard them before but um on this particular lesson it reminded me of a story i read in some of my materials two of my favorite books that i've got one is the pastor and profile and the chapter i like best on it is uh jezebel and judas on the trail of a preacher that's one of the chapters in it and then uh another book i have that is my favorite it's uh it's entitled for preachers and other sinners and these are two men that approach their the writing aimed at preachers and they don't spare much they they they tell us which i think maybe i i need that but uh a little story i heard that this uh young lady had gone into the bank and wanted to get a loan and uh the uh the banker uh put her through all the questioning and filling out forms and all that that you have to do and uh he has quite a sense of humor but he already knew that he was going to give her the loan but had a good humor he he had a artificial eye and uh he took great pride in it because you couldn't tell it from the other eye it was it was so perfect it was so good and he told the young lady said well one more question if you can tell me which one of my eyes is artificial and which one is real you've got the long without hesitation she said your left eye is the artificial lie just oh it surprised him and he said oh my how did you detect that so quickly you're right she said i believe i could detect sympathy out of your right eye and uh as i think of that little story i hope that in my teaching you can detect sympathy and and kindness out of what i have to say and not meanness because uh uh the man of god pastor taught a great lesson uh i'm i'm not a i'm not just watching but i'm a watchman and in the bible it said if the watchman sees the enemy coming and uh he don't sell the alarm he is charged with blood on his hands but if he gives the alarm and they don't heed then it's not uh attributed to him and we as men of god have a responsibility of telling you the truth though sometimes that truth is a little bit hard for us to take and so the message tonight is compromise is not compassion uh it's a it's a big thing nowadays and the word compromise seems to be a very desirable term well i i looked that up and and there are many complementary uh definitions of compromise but i kept reading and down to the very last it said two things to come to agreement by mutual concession a b to find or follow a way between extremes but the second definition was to make a shameful or disreputable concession wouldn't compromise with their principles to make a shameful or disreputable concession there comes a time when you cannot compromise on some things that you remember i read the thing i read in in the book of the uh of the hotel uh executive that wrote the book the heart of the house and uh i'm gonna be talking about this tonight now the word compassion means sympathetic consciousness of others distressed together with a desire to alleviate it synonym is to have pity and i want to give you a little uh an understanding say may i join with pastor whitley and saying what a message we heard sunday night i was at home it was my turn to to to stay home and let sister mccool come and i literally sat there and cried until tears ran down my face i found my feet dancing on the floor and i i was i was so beside myself i got to speaking in tongues and praising the lord and i was so blessed and if you didn't hear it you need to get online and call up the archives and and listen to the message that we heard uh who are you and and i i thought about i guess i need to start singing who am i that you would come from the glory and save a rot a wretched rotten soul like me but anyway let's go on uh israel's attempt at accepting compromise uh numbers 20 i'm going to start reading at verse 14. they were on their way to the promised land and uh moab one of the sons of of incest by lot uh he became a leader and and uh over a great territory and uh here's what moses is saying as they were traveling and this is pretty self-explanatory and moses sent messengers from kadesh unto the king of edom thus saith thy brother israel now first of all he he joins in by by trying to establish a kinship with edom thus saith thy brother israel thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us how our fathers went down into egypt and we have dwelt in egypt a long time and the egyptians vexed us and our fathers and when we cried unto the lord he heard our voice and sent an angel and hath brought us forth out of egypt and behold we are in kadesh a city in the uttermost part of thy border let us pass i pray thee through thy country we will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards neither will we drink in the water or the wells we will go by the king's highway we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left until we have passed thy borders and edom said unto him thou shalt not pass by me lest i come out against thee with a sword and the children of israel said unto him we will go by the highway and if i and my cattle drink any water then i'll pay for it i will only without doing anything else go through on my feet and he said thou shalt not go through and edom came out against him with much people with a strong hand thus edom refused to give israel passage through his boiler wherefore israel turned away from him last week's lesson was compassion without compromise now this uh just reading this is self-explanatory really as you notice uh israel in their distress on their way to the promised land they had to go through uh edom's territory and uh they they they tried to establish moses tried to establish a brotherhood a relationship of friendship and and said we'll stay on the highway we'll we'll not drink any of your water we'll not walk and we'll walk and we'll not get and if we do any damage we'll pay for it and there was no reconciling there was no compromise on the part of edom and and they had to go from and go another way a longer route and what i'm getting at now uh i believe in doing our very best to win souls our our our goal is souls but let me be very be be very frank and honest with you in the last few years i have seen too many of our apostolic folks make a left turn they start dressing worldly acting worldly looking worldly behaving worldly now paul said if i build up that which i have destroyed i maketh myself a transgressor now my point of this is and again i i hope you can detect a little sympathy in one of my eyes uh in my voice um and it seemed like these folks delights and getting on the internet and showing how worldly they can look you compromise is not compassion and it's almost like they're daring you to say something about the direction they've gone it's not what they were 20 years ago it's not the way they behaved 20 years ago or it's getting quiet in here but i don't you should you have no right to shout at this anyway this this is not a shouting point but it's the truth just the same and and we've got to have some some folks that will stand for the so the bibles are sin as for the old paths wherein is the good way but they said we will not walk in it i want to tell you something we've got to have some preachers that'll that'll get us back to of course i don't feel that we've got away from it but it breaks my heart to see many throughout the years as the older men of god have gone on and passed by some of the younger generations have gone so early and to to look you you wouldn't know whether you was watching a rock show or you wouldn't know if you was watching a a whirly entertainers or what and somebody needs to raise a voice and say let's get back to the old path where in is the good way but they said we'll not walk in it now my point of that they are more bold they are more bold and brazen with trying to show us how they can be like the world than we are to preach holiness now my old daddy-in-law rose cook uh he had a way about him that i'm not particularly uh uh advocating i started saying doors but i can't say that but i'll say i'm not particularly advocating but he would come down on homeless and he'd say bless god you can believe it or not it's immaterial to me bless god you can believe it or not well i i don't hear too much sympathy in that but that was their their way back then and there is a way for us to preach holiness and preach it with love the the preachers sought words to preach he sought the right kind of words and i want to do that but i want to tell you something there comes a time when we must preach what the word of god says he that loves the world are the things that are in the world the love of the fathers not in him come out from among them and be your separate saith the lord the bible says and jesus said so don't be upset if the world hates you i said they hated me first and they're going to hate you the world is not going to hate folks that want to adhere to and and hold to the line of holiness now here's a scripture i read last week and i want to uh go back to it and because i'm going to hit some high spots of last week's bible study psalms 85 and 10 mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other now adam clark had a most remarkable comment on this verse mercy and peace are on one side truth and righteousness on the other truth requires righteousness mercy calls for peace they meet together on the way one going to make inquisition for sin and the other to plead for reconciliation having met their differences on certain considerations not here particularly mentioned are adjusted and their mutual claims are blended together in one common interest on which peace and righteousness immediately embrace thus righteousness is given to truth and peace is given to mercy now righteousness didn't give in to unrighteousness truth didn't give in to untruth but there was a reconciliation and and that reconciliation was at the cross that that reconciles everything uh when ahab the bible the king that the bible said that that god despised more than any other he upset god more than any other uh the the king of syria binidad they they got several kings together and they attacked the people of god and god came to their rescue and and now then bitter dad uh he is he's he's now been defeated and uh his servant said we hear that the the jewish kings are are kind said if we'll just walk softly they may let us live and and so the bible said they they they caught on any word any word they could hear that sound like it was reconciliation they'd already been defeated now they they were given to destroying the people of god but there's over a hundred thousand of them killed in one day by god's army and they'd been so utterly defeated with all their reinforcements and now then here they are ready to be slaughtered themselves the kings and the servants said we hear that uh their uh their their kings are are kind and said maybe if we'll just speak softly they'll have compassion on us and pen and dad said by the way my father took land from your father and and uh don't you think we could talk this over and ahab said um who who said that now i'm paraphrasing you understand and uh said he said it it's been a dad been a dad and they have immediately felt so complimented by the syrian king he said well bitter death that's my brother said get up here in the church the chariot with me and and i he just fell all over himself reconciling with a man that was trying to kill every one of them well he was trying to save his own life now i could preach a month of sermons and teach a month of bible studies on what happened after that about the the the the man that wouldn't he the man of god said smite me and he wouldn't smile him and the lions threw him and found another officer smite meant he he smote him and it was to illustrate the fact that sometimes god's people have to stand firm we're not going to do damage to anybody we're not going to hurt anybody i'm not going to call anybody any ugly names you've never heard me up here calling uh uh somebody because they're not apostolic calling them some kind of a mosque back hypocrite and you're just that i don't i don't do that but i want to tell you this i've got to tell you except a man be born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of god and you can preach john 3 16 for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life god sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that through him the world may be saved we can preach that and preach the word of god in in love and that's what i'm trying to do tonight and i'm skipping over a lot of things because i want to get to something here we used this scripture last week in second samuel 14 14. um when david's sons had done what they'd done uh and and uh one son uh raped his half-sister and the other son uh had that one slain and then uh the word went out that they were all killed and they were not and then absalom the uh they the the fair-haired son of of david he went in seclusion he was hiding for two years and david longed for him he he stopped crying over admin because he couldn't and by and by joab he said he went to the uh a wise woman and told her to sit beside the wayside and to dress up with cyclops and ashes and said when the king comes by he's going to ask you what's wrong and here's what you want to tell the king you tell the king that you had two sons and that they were disagreeing in the field and there was nobody there to separate them and one of them slew the other one and now then the rest of the family wants you to have that one killed instead of have him killed i have nobody to take care of me and said then see what the king says and then you take it from there so david comes by and here this this wise woman sat there with sackcloth and ashes and and he asked her what was wrong she told him that story and uh he said that your your son that's alive i'll see to it that another hair falls from his head no they can't do that she said the words you speak are faulty what do you mean they're faulting you're the man that i'm talking about right now you've got a son that's in seclusion you've got a son that's away from home he can't come back because of what he did and then she used this illustration that's that's a very very good illustration she said whereas water that's spilled on the the ground you cannot take up the water the spill you've got to go on you need to let that boy come back and reconcile with this family and restore his life you can't bring back the the the boy that's that's dead well that's mercy and this is where we're we're trying to mix it for mercy and truth are met righteousness and peace have kissed uh and and let's this applies to every one of us there's some things that you can't undo the old said you can't unring a bell there's some there's some things you can do in in in sin you cannot undo it's like water spilled on the ground but i said what you can do you can repent ask god to forgive you and then don't carry a chip on your shoulder the rest of your life without thinking you're being persecuted david himself the life he lived wanted to build got a house and he couldn't build god a house but he didn't get his feelings hurt because they couldn't he said i'll prepare nails i'll prepare steel i'll prepare wood i in abundance for my son to build that house moses of all people the bible said the meekest man on earth the meekest man and yet he got so upset with the people of god he caught him a bunch of rebels and he one time he said i i'm tired i carried him in my bosom god am i going to death my light and they got this to me and god said that they they're they're needing water and they're complaining why didn't you let us die out there in the world well there's plenty of graves back down in egypt why didn't you leave us in egypt we'd rather be in egypt now that'd be some congregation wouldn't it we've started following you say what you left us back there in in in egypt they need water they must murmur and moses goes to god god said moses speak to that rock and and you'll get water and you heard me last wednesday night but it kind of tickles me a little bit i guess i want to talk about it again moses got the feeling his oats you know he he caught him up there and he he was really he knew god said he's gonna give him water and he didn't speak to the rock he took his rod and he smoked the rod twice look at look at how could it's imagine you know we we preaching sometimes we get to pull that man we can get brave when we got the microphone and we got we we can just really better out we can call names and i've heard preachers spit out so many things scared me i'm afraid they're gonna start cussing and they because they say everything but that i'm not exaggerating when i say that i really mean i mean that and it's in all honesty and he he smote the rock and there was a time god told him to smite the rock but god didn't tend to smite the rock then he didn't want to speak to it and because of this god said moses i'm not going to let you lead the people into the promised land you can take you can look over in it but you can't go and uh what i'm what i'm getting at there are with our message of mercy and i believe the message of mercy the mantle of mercy my sermon on manly mercy i'm not backing up on that at all but here's the thing what this uh woman told uh dave david about whereas his water spilled on the ground then she said neither doeth god respect any person yet doth he devised means that his banished be not expelled from him now i told you the little illustration last week about that i've seen children uh vanish from a classroom for a period of time so they didn't get expelled god devises means god devises means and sometimes it's an uncomfortable means to get our attention because he don't want us expelled but at the same time he is not going to deny his word and he's not going to compromise with us paul said in philippians 4 12 i know both how about to be a base and i know how to abound everywhere and all things i'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry and i i i have what to abound to suffer need that business of abounding sure sounds better to me than that other one and but they're mixed together sometimes i may abound and sometimes i i'm a base i i don't know but yet i've got to blend it together yes i'll take the part after being full over and over being hungry now i want to go to something else and start out on this and i won't get i won't get finished and and you see me flipping my pages in jeremiah chapter 12 and i i am watching the clock jeremiah 12 starting at verse 1. jeremiah says righteous art thou o lord when i plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgment god you're righteous but let me talk to you about something there's some things i need to i want to talk don't don't get upset with me wherefore doeth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are they happy that deal very treacherously god how is this i want to ask you something you're righteous but why is it all these wicked folks are doing so good and i'm not doing that good do you ever feel that way you wonder why and then notice he said thou hast planted them yea they've taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit thou art near in their mouth and far from their reigns they talk about you with their mouth but what they do with their actions is another thing we can say one thing but it's not your talk that counts at your walk that counts but thou o lord knoweth me thou has seen me and you've tried my heart toward thee pull them out like sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the deaths god here's what you need to do you need to pull them out and get them ready for slaughter he he's a little upset with where god was letting folks get by with things how long shall the land mourn and the herbs of never filled wither for the wickedness of them that dwell therein the beasts are consumed of the birds because they said he shall not see our last end now then here's what god is saying through jeremiah if thus run with the footman and they weared thee then how canst thou contend with the horses and in the land of peace wherein thou trusteth their weary thee then how wilt thou do in the swelling of the jordan now see if you can't detect the kindness in the right eye and then the voice here my goodness we've got child care we've got k-5 we've got rudder we've got we've got buses we go to youth rallies we've got a a regulation size gymnasium as nice as anything you you've ever yes you've ever been in uh we have youth riders we have camp meeting we have marriage retreat uh we have lights we have music we've got the the latest of everything we've got classes for everybody every age and if you can't live for god you see that kindness in my right eye there oh drums are too loud for me i can't you mean to tell me that that that one little thing after all the other things that was a kind voice now just to break the silence give the lord a hand right now [Applause] brother mccool what honey what i are you old cave i mean five years old and and they're they're they're they're learning they're they're learning their bible verses they're learning scripture they're learning their songs and then they here's another another edge and another edge and i look around in my word some of my some of gary and katie's kids ought to be kids and they got grandkids for heaven's sake wherever been i've been like rip van winkle that slept 20 years i here they are they ought to be and yet look what god has done for us look what god has done for us [Music] my my my granddaughter came by my house today and she had my great granddaughter right it just occurred hey this is my first granddaughter and there's my first great granddaughter and now that's not the only thing i've got a second great granddaughter and i've got a grand great grandson on the way and the the everyone involved in church i mean just as busy as they could be i almost have to get an appointment to get with them i'm saying that with kindness honestly uh it's choir practice it's we're going to a funeral we're going to a wedding we've got a counseling we're having dinner with somebody and and all the and i'm not saying that to us complaining i'm saying that rejoicing and thinking god my my if we can't live for god under the circumstances we've got right now what's wrong with us god is good to us i'm glad to get to go to church i'm glad you get to hear this i'm glad you get to see this hallelujah a long time ago brother charles richmond he said right after writing among the music and all that if you look close he'd have cotton stuffed in his ears and one that he didn't want to hear he just didn't want to hear too much i think somebody said we got we got earplugs back then and everybody don't like to like the same sound i accused my wife of whispering but since i've got older and i've got a set of hearing aids and one and one in each year and a lot of times i can't hardly talk on the phone anymore because i hear them but they can't can't take out what they're somehow another you lose certain frequencies and tones and and i have to ask her to help me right now what did you say and honey if you say it loud enough you wouldn't have to repeat yourself you're just not listening but she says it with a kind tone of course all right let's go on for even thy brethren and the house of thy father even they have dealt treacherously with thee yea they have called a multitude after thee believe them not thou that although they speak fair words and they they talk kind of pretty but don't believe that i have forsaken my house i've left my heritage now god is talking now says i've left my house i've left my heritage i've given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of their enemies now that's a little bit rough but this is god talking now he said i they're called my heritage and he called them his dearly beloved now i i know we've we've learned a lot of things about child rearing and and corporal punishment i've got to tell this because every now and then i uh i make so many mistakes and with my grammar and all that stuff that when i do find something that i can tell about because i don't let the opportunity escape me but they put out a new uh student handbook and they wanted me to read it see if i found anything to correct on it i appreciated that and i got to reading that and it said we do not allow capital punishment i said boy i'm glad to read that now and of course they made corporal punishment they don't they don't allow they're paddling like they used to years ago my daddy used to wear a belt he worked he wore overalls but he wore a belt under his overalls it wasn't to hold his britches up he had six boys and two girls and and we knew what that meant back then they they believed in that my dad would say something this hurts me more than it does you well it surely must have hurt him bad okay my heritage isn't to me as a lion in the forest now he's talking about my beloved now i'm talking about compromise and compassion now his his beloved he's calling him a lion in the forest that lieth out against me therefore have i hated it i don't hate him now the church is supposed to be we read about the lion of the tribe of judah but now god is project portraying them as a vicious beast that's ready to pounce this is how far they had got from god they they they they were like a vicious animal waiting and said that i hate it and then he said my heritage is unto me as a speckled bird the birds around about are against her come ye assemble all the beasts of the field come to devour now there's a different meaning to this than than many folks uh think it is when he said and then uh roy aca recorded this so many years ago what a beautiful thought i'm thinking of a great speckled bird and but now the sparkle bird meant that they had they had turned into a vulture like the others around that they they wanted to be like the other birds they wanted to be a speckled bird and it said and he said uh my heritage isn't to me as a special bird but what you don't realize church you may try to act like the world you may try to be a vulture like the world but all that they're against you they're not for you all the birds around are against you you can try to be like one of you but when you come right down to it they're not for you they're not for the church they're not for righteousness they're not for godless because they're evil and you and i need to maintain the position of god's people and stay on the way of holding us hallelujah and then he said many pastors have destroyed my vineyard my pastors they've trodden down my portion underfoot they've made my pleasant portion at desolate wilderness that's his pastors god help with pastors that we don't destroy his vineyard and it is our duty our number one responsibility is to preach the word to be instant in the season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine it's our job um when you see your children in danger you're not you're not doing them a favor by molly cuddling and and letting them do what they want to do oh i think i think when you let children make up their own mind can you imagine that do you let them make up their mind what time they go to bed do you let them make up their mind whether they want to take a bath or not well don't you know if you make them take a bath they may turn against water that may warp their personality if you if you make them get up and go to school did you know they may hate education let them don't do what they want no you've got to give them some direction and that's what the man of god and i want to tell you this i i've seen i don't know how to compare to anything else but i'll tell you this the the sermons we hear that pastor whitley preached pastor uh mark mccoy and pastor anthony and and everyone they put up they whoever they seem like they they do such a great job and we are so thankful we we must be we must be appreciative they've made it desolate being desolate and it mourneth unto it mourneth unto me the whole land is made desolate because no man left it to heart the spoilers who come upon all high places through the wilderness for the sword of the lord shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end and the lamb no flesh shall have peace they've sown wheat they shall reap thorns they put themselves to pain but it shall not profit and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the lord what he's simply said is when we get away from god's way we're not it may appear to prosper for a while but we're not going to prosper and i'm i'm being transparent tonight we hear this a lot that's become a new term that we are bear our souls and kind of confess who we are and what we are weaknesses and so forth but if i bear my soul tonight and confess i'm saying that it bothers me to see the direction a lot of the apostolics have gone and trying to keep that kind eye and the kind voice going i pray what and what what can we do lord to turn the it's harder to turn them around than it is to get some of the denominator folks that when they get converted they realize what they need to do listen we cannot win them by turning and being like them i'm talking about the world and and let us stand for holiness let us stand for righteousness and let us do it with with a peaceful sweet gentle attitude came to pass after that i plucked them out i will return and have compassion on them and we'll bring them again every man to his heritage and every man to his land after all this god said i'm going to bring him back god will bring him back if we'll if they'll let him and it's to come to pass if they will diligently learn the ways of my people to swear by my name the lord liveth as they taught the people to swear by baal then shall they be built in the midst of other people the the problem the people of god had throughout the bible and even though 400 years in egypt and and and uh even though they saw miracle after miracle cloud by day and fire by night uh water out of the rock all kinds of miracles one right after another and yet the first little inconvenience came along they said we remember the garlic the lakes the onions back in egypt give us meat to eat we remember the leeks the garlic and the onions the melons but they didn't remember their little babies that they the king had thrown in the nile river the crocodiles would eat they didn't remember all that if we're not careful we'll only remember what the devil shows as take a look on your nightly news see all the homeless people laying and slaying in the streets homeless and now the governments will just furnish their little fresh needles and a special place to go and taking the bible said professing themselves wise they became folks can you imagine can you imagine a society that led a man that what was a 400 way down the line when he was swimming against other men he dresses up like a woman and now he's number one and they accept him as a as a woman because he said i'm a woman you're talking about ridiculous and insanity sin is insane professing themselves wise they became fools but if they will not obey i'll utterly pluck them up and destroy the nation saith the lord maybe if i'll read this right here and and and close i'm going to have to go into an another session with this so listen carefully as i read you this story because there's a great lesson to be learned jeremiah 13 1 thus saith the lord unto me go and get the a linen girdle and put it up on my lawns and put it not in water so i got a girdle according to the word of the lord and put it in my loins and the word of the lord came to me the second time saying take the girdle the thou has god which is upon thy loins and arise go to your pray and hide it there in a whole nother now watch this because this is very important and hide it there that girdle has never been put in what it's brand new brand new now then put it in the hole in the rock so i went and hid it by euphrates as the lord commanded me and it came to pass after many days the lord said to me arise go to euphrates and take the girdle from the fence which i command thee to hide there then i went to the euphrates and digged it and digged and took the girdle from the place where i had hid it and behold the girdle was marred and was profitable for nothing what is the story take the girdle it's never been washed hide it it's going to deteriorate it's going to go to nothing let me tell you something folks if we hide this gospel in iraq if we cover it with personality if we cover it with the winning friends and influence people if we hide it it's going to rot it's i you don't have to stomp on it you don't have to rail on it you don't have to preach against it just don't preach it would you stand when we stop preaching hopefulness people will quit living it when we quit preaching healing people quit depending on god to heal them when we quit preaching uh living holy folks will quit living holy you remember the little story that really did happen this is not a made-up story and i've told it a hundred times brother jim pepkins his little boy kevin had a little paper route his tithe was it was a i think it was a dollar he had made ten dollars he'd give a dollar and one sunday he didn't pay his tithe and his his uncle brother jim pipkin's brother jim called him in said kevin son um you didn't pay your tithe this week what's wrong he said uncle jim you didn't preach on it that was a little funny and it was funny but there's so much truth in that when we quit preaching it we don't have to start telling folks to live early we don't have to start lambasting other folks we don't all gotta all we've got to do is just simply hide the girdle and not in the rock and go out and you'll go back and see if it's not all to pieces i was following after anthony when he's in in high school or school he was he was he was golfing and so i dressed up i went in the closet and got got me a pair of running shoes i think they were not ideas that a lot of times i think it starts with an r and i can't remember what it was but anyway they've been the clock reeboks that's what they were they were reeboks and they were snatched they were brand new and they'd been in that closet for i don't know how long but we said it was over at upgrades and there's a golf course over there they were playing uh and then and some kind of tournament and and i was enjoying that and and i got to try and after a while something surrounded and so helped me those shoes had come apart on my feet they'd been in my closet so long and though they were new they've got the and i had to go to the stop at the store and buy me a pair of shoes that day and i hadn't even worn before i was my point is this you don't have to you don't have to preach against it just quit preaching just put it on the shelf preachers are still preaching don't put yourself don't preach baptism in jesus name don't preach the holy ghost speaking in tongues don't preach for folks to dress right don't just just come just so just just preach a pretty little happy message all you got to do just hide it and it'll drop on the father we thank you tonight for the blessed word of the lord i pray god that you will take the word and let it sink deep into our hearts and god i pray that you will let the attitude that's in my heart project rather than maybe what it might appear because i i have a strong feeling lord that there are many of our of your people our precious people down through the years have drifted from what they really need to be holding to tonight and i pray o god that the kindness and the love that's in my heart toward them is uh will be manifest but that this word of god will sink deep into our hearts and may we change this world with a great revival uh like a service and sermon we heard sunday night father i pray you'll let us be dismissed from this place but not from your presence bring us back at the next appointed time in jesus name we pray amen shake hands be friendly bump elbows or whatever your protocol is god bless you