Just One More Time | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

thank you sanctuary choir remain standing with me i want you to turn in your bibles of luke chapter 24. and i guess i'm just going to pick up where they left off the resurrected savior have we already had a great time this morning holy ghost has already moved in such a beautiful way oh my word wow for the holla and the sound has been amazing isn't it easy to worship when it sounds good or is it that just me i know i'm a little crazy like that but it just it's just easier it just easier when it sounds good when it looks good when you when you got a good looking choir so in the choir said amen it just makes it easier and what an honor it is to worship of the greatest people in all the world god has blessed us with the best we believe that amen give honor to pastor and sister carpenter and they are blessing a great church in the city of memphis brother brother nolan already kind of told us about that we're missing them but we are glad that they are being a blessing across across this state oh my well what a big week we had last weekend wasn't marriage retreat amazing wasn't that mary's if you were there i believe that might have been the very best marriage retreat we have ever had and i know we say that every year and i guess it just gets better and better i guess as our marriages get stronger and stronger i guess that makes retreat easier to bear oh no but seriously though i do want to say this very important i believe next sunday we will have available the sets and i know many already pre-ordered if you've not ordered those yet uh two things that i heard we had a uh a breakout session for blended families so if you were not there uh could not make marriage a treat this year there was a breakout session for uh blended families if you have a blended family i've been told at least i've heard these people i've overheard people talking and they say that it absolutely changed the dynamics of their family just by hearing that message so i promise you get that blended families also there was one going on the same time maybe you were in the blended family session and you missed out on the uh financial session that the boss is taught get that cd because that was also eye-opening and maybe even mind-blowing to an extent of what our what our responsibility is in the kingdom of god get that and i believe that you will be blessed of course all the sessions the general sessions we got uh we got bunch and breeze city of bunch and breeze i mean that's just good keep you laughing if everything's going wrong the marriage that'll make you feel better no seriously though we had just such a great time but please remember pick those up uh pastor nolan already mentioned our spring program seven o'clock doors open at six o'clock on friday begins at seven o'clock get here uh then sunday what a big weekend sunday he mentioned our anniversary now we're celebrating two anniversaries and one uh first anniversary of course is our church anniversary which is a 40-year anniversary it's a commemorative year be here uh this sunday uh the bingham's all the way from carlsbad new mexico will be here but also we are celebrating our pastor our senior pastors 37th he and our first lady their 37th year of pastoring here at first apostolic we want to celebrate that with them amen and we want to shower them we want to shower them with gifts let's just be good uh they've been so good to this church let's just in return let's show them our love for them and let's bless them a little bit they're not here so i can say that usually i get uncomfortable saying stuff like that but but they're not here so they can't say anything but let's shower them let's just spoil them big next sunday where we have a lot to celebrate and uh let's remember to do that one other request and i'm gonna pray over this request when i pray over my message but the bartram family um the campbell family the poole family they're they're all married into this bartram family uh we love chance and alyssa so much we've they've been members of this church they are now on the on the east coast they're in the the armed services they had just a tragedy take place in their family let's just remember them we don't need to know all the details we just need to remember that these families need our prayer today can we do that when i pray over my message i want to remember them especially that god would give them peace of mind in their hearts and god would be with their whole family luke chapter 24 i don't want to keep you standing long but let's just read just a i don't know four or five verses here that's gonna set up our message today the bible says then arose peter and ran unto the sepulcher and stooping down he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves departed wandering in himself at that which was come to pass we move into verse 13 my subject and behold two of them went the same day to a village called emmaus which was from jerusalem about three score furlongs some seven and a half miles and they talked together of all things all these things which had happened and it came to pass that while they communed together in reason jesus himself drew near and went with them but their eyes were holding that they should not know him and he said unto them what manner of communications are these that you have one to another as you walk and are sad and the one of them whose name was cleophus answered said unto him art thou only a stranger in jerusalem hast thou not known the things which are come to pass in these last days and he said unto them what things and they said to jesus that he knows jesus concerning jesus of nazareth which was a prophet mighty indeed and word before god and all the people and now the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him but i want you to look at this next verse but we trusted that it had been he which should have been redeemed israel and beside all this today is the third day since these things were done let me give you my subject because it's going to be quite simple and i'm just going to preach it from about four different angles but whatever you do don't give up on the third day whatever you do don't walk away on the third day i just want to preach to somebody today you got to keep believing you got to keep standing you got to keep pressing forth this is not the time to lay down to give in to bow down or give up because it's the third day i said it's the third day y'all if you're gonna give up today is not the day if you're gonna turn back today is not the day the third day is the day of victory it's the day of promise it's the day of resurrection and god has revealed to me that there's somebody here today in this place this morning who's contemplating giving up somebody here today is thinking in their mind about turning up turning back and throwing in the towel but i pray and i plead and i beg you today please don't give up my subject title today is simply just one more time just one more time why don't you put your bibles down i feel the holy ghost in this place already i i want you to lift both hands up to heaven we're gonna pray a prayer father lord we need you in this house like we've never needed you before lord we're living in the last days we're living in perilous times where we're living in a time lord god where we don't even understand what's going on around us and things are happening in our country and our government lord our society lord god that we can't even we can't even comprehend and and god if there was ever a time to hold on and to keep moving forward and to keep pressing on today is that day in god we need your strength we need your power we need the unction of the holy ghost to lead us as your children as your people lord we need your unction lord god to guide us god guide our feet hold our hand be the lamp unto a pathway be the light in the darkness for your church and for your children today we ask this in jesus name and father i bring the broad term family before you lord you know the need that's in their family you know the disaster that happened the unthinkable tragedy that happened within their family god i'm praying that you'll be the strength in their lives i pray that you'll be the strength in their family god i believe that you're gonna be a peace that surpasses all understanding when they don't know how they made it through to tomorrow lord god it's gonna be because of your peace it's gonna be because of your mercy because of your grace that's gonna hold their family together and be with them in their need i pray in jesus name be with that family today and everybody said in jesus name amen and amen you may be seated today just one more time say that with me just one more time it's been said that the only difference between a saint and a sinner is the saint just got up one more time then they fell we fall down but we get up one of my favorite songs donnie mclurkin song we fall down but we get up we fall down but we get up for a saint is just a sinner who fell down and god up i need you to sing it with me sing we fall down and we get up it's all of us we fall down and we get up we fall down but we get up for a saint is just a sinner who fell down and got a sh that's all it is that's all we can say listen all of us are sinners saved by grace all of us fail but we're we're saved by grace we got mercy that that's that's in our life it's working daily in our life and all we got to do is just know within ourselves if i can just get up one more time then i fall down and i fail then i falter if i can just get up one more time it has said the same thing that the only difference between the failure and the success is the successful tried again just one more time just one more time failure after failure was followed by trying again for somebody we know very well and we've heard of very well mr walt disney story has it that when he was some 22 years old he was he was fired from his job at the newspaper he was editor and he was fired because he lacked imagination and he had no good ideas after getting fired he he acquired laughagram his first animation studio which eventually went bankrupt with only 40 dollars in his pocket he he set out for los angeles only to realize that hollywood didn't have any animation studios this eventually led to his creation of mickey mouse and of course the rest is history and today the walt disney company is worth some 95.79 billion dollars and has won of course countless awards of innovation i believe he had just a little bit of an imagination amen despite his death in 1966 walt disney's legacy continues to live on because every time he failed he tried again every time he failed he tried again i just want to get this try to get this foundation laid every time he failed he tried again and i've not come to preach about walt disney or or disney world or disneyland or any of the multiple companies that are owned by the walt disney company however i have come to preach about the spirit behind successful people because successful people keep trying whether they're inventors or animators or investors or whether they're athletes or musicians uh anybody that's in this room today if you want to be successful we got to keep on keeping on we got to keep on trying when it doesn't seem possible when the impossible is an invitable interval it is our role and responsibility as children of god to put one foot in front of the other and keep on keeping on somebody shout him in in genesis chapter 26 and verse 18. matter of fact if you want to turn in your bibles there i i want to read a little bit about isaac the son of abraham the father of jacob isaac digged a well and he digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of abraham his father for the philistines had stopped them up after the death of abraham and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them and isaac's servants digged in the valley and they found there a well of water that was springing up and the herdmen of gerrard did strive with isaac's herman saying this water is ours and he called the name of the well esak because they strove with him and they dig another well they they digged again and strolled for that also and he called the name sitna and he removed from fence and digged another will and for that they strong not and he called the name rehellboth and he said for now the lord hath made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land let me tell you something isaac understood it doesn't matter how many times i my will gets stopped up or how many times my will gets stolen out from under me i gotta keep on digging another well because if you ever stop digging wells that's your life support you you never want to try to live without water you never want to try to live without the spirit of god in your life my god moms and dads the last thing we want to do is let the well dry up and give up and give in and just say well i guess it's over i guess the enemy won i guess i'm gonna have to start borrowing water from the enemy because the last thing we want to do is start having to borrow water from the enemy i don't want to have to get my oil anywhere else i want to get it here in the u.s something about having to buy things from the enemy the enemy gets to dictate exactly what happens i don't want to get political isaac kept on digging it didn't matter if people thought he was crazy it didn't matter how much work it took listen i've watched in africa in kenya i've watched whales being dug it's crazy y'all hey we're not talking about a drilling machine brother hot i've i've seen some of your brother kippy i've seen some of y'all digging burrowing in in in whale drilling machines i've seen i've seen what you used to know they just have just a little hand shovel and i i've looked down into a well that they're digging before when the when the digger was down there what did you call that we call wild digger well i hear something i hear a dig weller i like it down there man i remember looking down i'll stand next to brother grimm i said that guy is crazy i mean he is down he's so far down i can barely see him and he's digging it with a hand shovel and we're talking about isaac we're talking about before hand shovels they had rocks they i don't know what they use some sharp rocks or edges of pottery i don't know what they use but here they are digging whales that are probably 25 30 meters deep into the ground trying to find water and people around them are wondering what in the world are you doing you just dug a well and they filled it back in why are you digging another well why because isaac said if i don't have water my family's gonna die listen if we don't have this church our families are gonna die this is the place where we find living water this is the place where we find the bread of life this is the place where we're fed oh my god i want to be under the spot where the glory comes out let your water let your heavenly water flow a lot of people probably looking at you and wondering to themselves what are they doing going to that church over and over and over again they go to church and things still happen in their life they go to church and things still happen in their families and they go to church and things that still happen in their marriage you would think by now they would stop going to their church they're wasting their time they're wasting their money putting money into an offering plate it doesn't even make sense that you give to god and god gives to you it doesn't even make sense that you can't pay your bills and you still bring the first fruits and the tithe into the storehouse it doesn't make sense to your friends and to your unsaved family members and to your co-workers that doesn't make any sense and they look at you like why do they continue to go to church do they not see what's happened in their life if they would work some overtime on sunday they'll be able to pay some more bills if they work some overtime on sunday they won't have so many financial issues within their marriage and their marriage wouldn't be on the rocks but something that you know that they don't know is if you don't have a well you don't drink and if you don't drink you don't survive oh my god the church is here the churches are well and although if i seem like everything's going wrong it might seem like everything's failing if you can just make it to church and dig your will again survival no matter what one more time dig a well one more time bring your family to church now listen i heard a story this week a pentecostal preacher told a powerful story this week that absolutely changed my life and it's so if it's okay i wanna i wanna tell it like i heard it i wanna tell it from the first person point of view for i grew up in a pastor's home and i can remember this story like it was yesterday i was about 15 years old when i heard the doorbell to my family's home ring i remember getting up and opening the door to find a blessed sister a saint of god probably one of my parents greatest and most faithful saints of the church i'm talking about she was at every work day she was faithful never miss church she was always there faithful in ties and offerings she she was always behind the pastor she was always behind the first lady she was one of those saints that you never ever want to lose and there she stood at the door and i could tell that she had been crying i could tell that she had been weeping and i it's the door i said i said how can i help you and she said please can i speak with your parents i said absolutely come on in and i got to admit i kind of looked behind her to see if her if her three daughters were with her because this lady had the most beautiful three daughters they were they were a little bit older than me but they were the most beautiful three young ladies you'd ever seen in your life and i remember myself thinking if if i could just get one of them to look my way if i could just get one of them to talk to me that's that's all i would really need but she was by herself today and she came in and she sat down i went and found i went and found my parents and i brought them into into the living room and this beautiful sister she began to just tell my parents she started off with my father and she told him she said you've been the best pastor i've ever had you've been a pastor for me when when i needed a pastor the most you've guided me you've led me i love you i love you i love you she went to my mother and began to say to my mother you have been the greatest pastor's wife you've been a leader you've been a guide you've been everything to me i've followed in your footsteps i i followed after you you've been the greatest pastor's wife i i love our church there's no church like our church she began to talk about the church how awesome the church was this church is a church it's a lighthouse it's it's a place where i go when i don't know where else to go it's a place where i go and i don't know what else to do it's just my church she began to talk about the church and how much she loved the church and cared about the church and she started talking about her sunday school class how much she loved the students in her class she began to tell a love she began to name them one by one and just told my mother and father how much she loved love and loved but i want you to know that as she was talking even me and i was eavesdropping i wasn't even in the room i was in the next room over listening but even i was thinking to myself there's about to be a butt right because when you get too many compliments and too much good has said there's always a butt that follows and sure enough she said butt she said i'm so tired of pulling against my husband she said she said i pull in one way and he's pulling the other way she said i'll pull it one way and he's pulling the other way she says my three daughters i get them in sunday school on a sunday morning and for the next two weeks he pulls them out and he pulls them to some rodeo and they go to rodeo on the weekends and she said i get him into a wednesday night bible study and the next week she's he's pulling him out and pulling those three girls and they're going to some basketball game on a wednesday night she says i'm pulling and he's pulling against me she says i'm trying to do right and everything he is doing is pulling down everything that i'm building she said and i just can't take it no more she says i brought my keys i brought my i brought my sunday school manual and i'm done i've given up i've given up i can't do it no more i can't fight this fight no more she began to weep and i'm up here i'm up here weeping myself because i've seen this happen to people from our church and she started to weep and she moaned and she cried and she and dad waited all until it was almost like one of those wind-up toys that you wind up and he let her wind all the way down until there was no more moaning there was not another word or noise made and dad said dad said if you really love me like you say you love me and if you really love my wife like you say you love my wife and you really love our church like you say you love our church i'm gonna ask one request he said sister irene if you will today make one promise to me it's simple it's easy it's just a petition i want you to grant me one favor he said please take this sunday school manual back please take these keys back and just teach one more sunday listen i'm tore up because i know their new story and at the time i didn't know what the end of the story was i i remember my parents in the living room weeping before god and said god why this is a saint of god we put so much time to this is a saint of god that's working in your kingdom it's working so hard why are you allowing this to happen to us and to our church brother lawless i didn't know the rest of the story but apparently she got home she put up that manual she put those keys up and on sunday morning she did what she did every sunday morning she went in the bathroom began to get ready got her hair all fixed up put her sunday dress on getting ready to go teach sunday school one more time in her mind she was saying i could do it one more time anybody could put on a face and do it all the time and then walked her husband and he said irene she said yeah honey he said do i have a suit she said where are you going you said irene do i have a clean white shirt she said where are you going he said irene do i have a pair of one of those a really shiny pair of black shoes and she said honey where are you going and he said i was just thinking last night for years now you've been going one way and i've been going another he said but i just got to thinking it's time for all that to stop he said i just got to thinking i'm sick of going one way while you go another way i'm sick of me and the girls going one way while you go another way and he said i just decided i'm going to go to church with you today a matter of fact he said girls you all need to get your pretty dresses on we're going to church with mama and let me tell you something if you can just make it one more time if you could just open your eyes and realize that something's going on in heaven there's something going on in heaven even right now that you can't see his ways are not your ways his thoughts are not your thoughts when you think all hope is lost when you think there's no hope god said i'm gonna make a way if you'll just try it one more time if you'll just teach one more time i wish every sunday school teacher in this place would get courage inside of you and say god i'll do it one more time if you oh my god if you're thinking about giving up and giving in somebody needs to say to themselves i declare i try one more time you've been praying you've been sowing my god wait for the rain i'll say it again you've been praying for your lost children you've been praying for your lost husband you've been praying for lost family members my god you better wait around and let them come home you may be seated i'll come back to that but jesus said to his disciples he said take the boat out out into the deep and cast your nets i want you to see what peter said in luke 5 5 simon answered and said to him master we have toiled all night and have taken nothing he was saying i give up we're throwing in the towel we're gonna fold these nets and try again another day but then he stopped and he said nevertheless at thy word i will let down the net again and you know exactly what happened you've got to cast your niche one more time it doesn't make sense it doesn't make sense come on somebody it doesn't make sense come on jesus we've already been trying we've already been doing this we're fishermen we're professionals we've already we've tried all night long we haven't caught a minnow my god you know it's not going to matter if we go out in the deep and jesus said just go ahead and do what i say and peter had enough faith within him he said i'll do it one more time naaman you've got leprosy come on somebody think with me about naming the leper you have a disease that your world is doing everything in its power to make sure it doesn't become a pandemic and you kind of here you are complaining about how dirty the water is that you're dipping in come on i'm just trying to communicate with somebody today because you think you have a legitimate excuse to quit you think oh you don't you don't know you don't know like i know what's been going on at home and you don't know like i know what's happening inside my body you don't know like i know everything i've been through and you're right i don't but i know a god who does and his ways are plain they're simple his yoke is easy his birmingham's light and if you'll just listen to him he'll tell you to do some things that don't make sense but if you do it again come on nemo get down in the water dip again come on keep again come on give one more time come on you can do it come on dead boy i know the jordan river is nasty and it's dirty and the rivers in your hometown are a whole lot cleaner but if you'll dip again if you'll dip again if you're gonna keep on keep on dipping because on the seventh time down when he came up out of the water he was cleansed from his leprosy it's not about what makes sense it's a god that has power and authority and all healing in his hands deep again my god i'm reminded we sing about it you maybe see the the children of israel with a choir saying about it oh my god i know you've been marching for days around these walls of jericho i know insurmountable walls i know these walls it doesn't make sense that anything's gonna happen except you look like a bunch of fools marching around walls but keep on marching go ahead and make another lap come on i know i know you're ward out but go ahead just take one more lap just one more like just you go come on just one more and on the sixth time around i believe there were no jesus i think we could do one more oh just one more if we can make it around this just one more time if we can make it around this city and i don't want you to be i don't want you to be ignorant upon these walls we're not talking about walking around this church they were walking miles around this area of the walls of jericho it wasn't an easy feat they were being laughed at you know people on the wall they were a little bit nervous but at the same time they were looking down thinking oh my god what are these crazy people doing do they think this is the red sea do they think this is the jordan river these are the walls of jericho ain't none falling around here but what they didn't realize is the people of god kept their mouths shut they didn't talk bad about the leader they didn't talk bad about each other they didn't moan and complain oh my god they just kept on marching and they kept on telling themselves if we could get around this wall one more time and you know the rest of the story those walls came tumbling down woman with the issue of blood i just want to bring some faith stories before you because i know some people just think that brother eric said you got good life and you don't know what i'm going through i'm trying to tell you there's other people that you can read throughout your bible that had a whole lot worse than you a woman with an issue of blood 12 years my god she had an issue for 12 long years you've tried every physician you can find but don't give up now woman because there's a great physician that's coming down your dusty road and if you can just get to him and if you can just touch him he'll be the last one that you'll ever have to touch just one more time somebody say one more time come on sit again say one more time whatever you've been doing in the kingdom of god do it one more time i'm crying out to every sunday school teacher that's in the house today and they may all be out teaching and you might need to go tell them to watch the webcast but they need to try just one more time don't let the devil come against you and tell you you're not making a difference you are making a difference sunday school teacher i need you to go back next sunday and try it one more time i know the kids seem out of control i know they have snotty noses i know you might even be changing some diapers right now but just go back next week and do it one more time every choir remember listen the last thing as a choir worship leader that i want to hear is for a choir member to come up and say you know how the city takes so i need to take a break from the choir i just need to get out of the choir now there's some there's some people listen i i know you're out here and some of you have good excuses and i get it i understand some of you got a vertigo and if you go back choir off you your words are to come tumbling down i get it i get it oh god i get it i'm not talking to you but i'm talking to the person who the devil has told you getting to church early is overrated being in the prayer room every sunday morning and every sunday evening is overrated being faithful to the house of god is overrated it would be a whole lot easier if you could just show up at church time and get in a pew and sit down and then you can just enjoy the worship and that's the lie the devil wants to tell but that's not how it is because the devil is so much smarter than that the enemy is so much smarter than that because he knows if i can get them out of the choir loft i can also get them out of their other ministries and if i can get them out of their other ministries before long they won't be coming but every other sunday and every other wednesday and then sooner or later they won't even be coming on wednesdays god help us every choir remember come on come on global grounds but reached us keep on brewing coffee get in there coffee shop and work work yourself i know i know you're missing lunch on sundays i know the rest of your family goes off and they go to lunch on sundays and and you're there sweeping up a coffee shop but what you don't understand is every ministry of this church is making disciples and it's not only making disciples it's causing people to get grounded and faithful to the house of god everything you don't know who you're gonna talk to next week when you show up to brew some coffee and make me some some iced coffee with with low sugar with sweet cream inside you don't even know who's your life you're gonna touch it's not just me that likes cold brew it's not me just me that likes your snickers coffee whatever you make over there there's people that need they need that they need a word from you they need encouragement they come to church early they get their coffee man there listen all hell is broke loose in their homes their husband ain't been treating them good or their wife hadn't been treating them good they just coming to church to get away from home and they show up in your coffee shop and god only knows what you're gonna say to them god only knows what you're gonna what life you're gonna put inside of them and the devil's trying to tell you all you are is a broom handler all you are here there's a coffee drip you're just dripping coffee and pouring ca oh no you're not devil i rebuke you in jesus name you can reach out to souls in any ministry that you're a part of in this church cameraman oh my god if i get started i'll never stop we'll be here all day if i start going from ministry to ministry don't let the devil tell you all you're doing is zooming in and zooming out on a camera my god you're making a window into this world over the internet so people can get the holy ghost and see the need to be baptized in jesus name through a lens you're creating a window for people to be reached for the kingdom of god don't give up now just child one more time don't give up now oh god i've had department heads this is so sad but i've had department heads come to me and they tell me listen i i just feel like i need to turn in my keys i i'm just burned out i've been doing this for so long and i just i think it's somebody else's turn to do my job and i do the best i can to encourage them y'all i do the best i can i tell the truth say no no no it's all in your head you're doing a great job people love you people want to be on your team you're leading a great group of disciple makers is what you're doing and i'll tell them that how listen i'll borderline beg them come on just stay where you are stay just just we'll pray about whatever it is now i'm not talking about seeing in their life i'm not talking about that i'm just talking about burnout and i've watched people from kids ministry to choir to media to the school to the daycare i've watched people say i'm done i quit i give up i give in people that could have been world changers i'm talking about people that could influence generations and have influenced generations youth workers and children's workers and people who kids look up to them and adore them idolize and they just throw in the towel and say i'm done don't look around i'm not talking about anybody in this place today because listen if you stop digging if you stop trying to get another whale you're not gonna stay here you're not gonna last on the pew if you don't see the need to keep on digging another well you're not gonna last you're not gonna last you're not gonna last you're not gonna survive because you always got to be digging you always got to be working you always got to be saying i cannot give up i cannot give him there's never a time to give up there's never a time to give in listen there's a time we're gonna read about it there's a time for just about everything else good and bad but i could not find any verse in the bible where this says there's a good time to quit look at me ecclesiastes chapter three and one solomon outside of the man christ jesus solomon was the wisest man to ever live to ever walk the earth and he wrote this he says to everything there's a season and a time to every purpose under heaven a time to be born a time to die a time to plant a time to pluck up we just planted it a time to kill a time to heal a tam time to break down and a time to build back up a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together and a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing a time to get to the time to lose a time to keep in a time to cast away a time to run the time to sow a time to keep silent in a time to speak there's a time to love there's a time to hate there's a time of war and there's a time of peace it would appear that the wisest man to ever live never said anything about a time to quit birth death planting reaping killing healing breaking down building up weeping laughing morning dancing embracing loneliness game loss receiving losing tearing mending love hate war peace but through it all not one mention of quitting not one mention of giving in not one mention of giving up we never have a right to quit there's never a good season to quit dear god in heaven i hope i've driven this point home dear god in heaven if you're here today wondering how where's the back door how do i get my god close the back door dead bolt the back door get in this thing with everything you have stay in this thing with everything you have fight till you can't fight no more and whatever you do don't quit come on there's a passion inside of me and i want to preach you may be seated i want to preach it's the best way i can and i'm going to start i'm going to end where i started i want to go back to our beginning text because jesus's disciples had watched their best friend die a horrible death they saw him die a death that no man wanted to die they saw him hanging on a cross it was the lowliest of the lowest ways to die to have capital punishment it was a horrible death and two days later reality begins to set in and jesus is in the grave into some of them they didn't get it and for them it was game over the third day sunday they make a decision we read about it in our text they make a decision to walk away in the head to a mass they aren't hanging around jerusalem they're not hanging around the tomb where jesus is buried they're walking away they're giving up they're disillusioned they're griping they're complaining their life didn't turn out the way they thought it should can you see them living in their past they're saying to one another this is all in the word now i'm kind of i'm paraphrasing a little bit but they're telling each other but i'm alone they're saying we gave up everything we sold it all we left our homes we left our businesses we killed the oxygen we burned the plow is what they were saying we gave everything we had to join the ministry of this jesus but all of a sudden a stranger joins their little walking pity party and they're so full of self they don't even recognize him selfishness jesus allowed their selfishness to cloud their eyes to where they didn't even see who it was they had joined them down the pathway and jesus he kind of has to walk a little bit faster to catch up with him and he kind of just kind of just well hello gentlemen and they don't even brother jeremy they don't know how to look up and it's this they're so forlorn and jesus jesus is man just brother jeremy y'all y'all look like what's wrong man y'all look like what who died what happened in your life and they looked at him jesus looked at him and they looked at jesus and they said what what who are you how have you how have you not heard what's been going on this weekend we've had the worst weekend in history and i like this right here they begin to tell jesus what happened to jesus and i could i get to see jesus i got i got an imagination y'all and i could just imagine he was like i'm gonna let these guys talk because i this is good stuff okay if this was their perception of what happened this is just this is good but you know there have been something within jesus and matter of fact i'm not going to read it because it'll take us forever but if you go down there farther on jesus gets a little riled up because jesus is like guys i told you exactly what was going to happen i told you tear down this temple in three days i'll raise it back up i told you that i exp i even told you how many days i mean it doesn't take it doesn't take a mathematician one two three there it is come on that's kindergarten y'all and jesus gets fired up man later i'm not gonna go into it doesn't go with my message but he gets fired up you gotta be you gotta be killed you gotta be kidding me that you don't even even recognize what i did and you're not even the place where where i told you all to be in and here they are they're all they're walking away and they're dismayed and they're calling it quits and even in the state of mind as they don't recognize jesus and they don't they hear what jesus is saying to them they still didn't even catch on who he was it took him a whole it was days later that he revealed himself that he was alive to them they still as they walked when he left them they still didn't have a clue who he was they had even seen lazarus come out of the grave y'all come on this wasn't anything new they had already seen the dead come to life again they already knew the power that was in jesus christ they understood what was going on that this was nothing new to them but here we have two people as they're walking and as they have decided i'm going to give up and what i want to say to you is the same thing that jesus was saying to them come on y'all it's the third day there's no giving up on the third day whatever you do don't give up now we should sing a song says well i wouldn't take nothing for my journey now gotta make it to heaven somehow though the devil tries me and he tries to turn me around he'd offered everything that's got a name all the wealth i want and worldly fame if i could still i wouldn't take nothing for my journey now verse one while i started out traveling for the lord many years ago i've had a lot of heartache i met a lot of grief and woe but when i would stumble then i would humble down and there i'd say i wouldn't take nothing for my journey now verse 2 says oh there's nothing in this world that'll ever take the place of god's love all the silver and gold wouldn't buy a touch from above when the soul needs healing i begin to feel his power then i say thank you lord i wouldn't take nothing for my journey now come on if you feel that way i just feel the sweet presence of the lord in here i want you to lift up your hands and i want you just to say god come what me come on i've i've gone too far i've seen too much come on somebody say you got to pray this prayer right here you got to make a declaration right now say lord this is my third day i sure can't leave you now it's my third day i sure can't leave you now i've gotten this far i sure can't give up now oh my god i think back of that story of sister irene and i think to myself you sure picked a fine time to leave sister irene you sure picked a fine time to leave sister irene after all those years of staying the course and keeping the faith and fighting against the enemy in the home you fought all those years my god don't give up on the third day when everything's about to change when your husband's about to come to life when your daughters are about to come to life don't give up now there's no queen in the kingdom of god there's no quit you can't quit now do you really think that i'm going to give them now you may be seated listen i'm going to give you this little personal story i'm done i just give you just a few more minutes i'm just going to get personal with you listen i grew up in home missions when i was four years old back way back in 1980 my parents we went to auburn new york we took everything we had in a truck with a cab on it and we drove it up to auburn new york i didn't have a church within 200 miles of us and the four of us mom and dad and me and my brother john there we were we were the church and i remember as a young child growing up i wonder what it would feel like to have a youth group i wonder what it'd feel like to have choir singers and praised singers i wonder what it'd feel like to have a set of drums i wonder what it feel like to even have a piano up in this place i would do anything sister r when i see you this morning honey and i know some 40 years ago when you all came here to maryville tennessee i know it wasn't easy but now i look around and i dreamed of this right here by the dempsey i dreamed of this oh my god one day could i be standing and preaching in front of a thousand seats could i be in an auditorium that had lights that had cameras that had screens listen there was no such thing as all this technology back then but in my mind's eye i was like god there's gonna come a day when i'm proud to invite somebody to church you young people don't even have a clue know what our pulpit was our pulpit was a a tv stand and we didn't believe in tvs a little tv stand the devil had it long enough who i digress okay on top of that mama put a cardboard box and then we threw a blanket the blanket that goes across the back of the couch we threw that over the top of that box in that tv stand and that was dad's pulpit in all the saints all three of us sat in an overstuffed pew called a couch you think i'm going to give up now when god has given us this you got to be crazy brother smith can you imagine me trying to invite people to church when we were in that living room because brother brother are you you know this brother hearts man he's won a lot of souls and you know whenever it seems like whenever you're in the smallest room with the smallest amount of people that's where the craziest people are it ain't none of y'all y'all in the big place but i'm talking about man we have church and sister crazy bless her heart would show up y'all forgive me but i wasn't inviting none of my friends to that all right forgive me lord i'm sorry but i think to myself people yeah if i was gonna give up that would have been a good time to give up i mean back in 1985 1987 that would have been a great time just to slip on into the world and do whatever i was gonna do but 45 years later y'all i wouldn't take nothing for this journey you think after god has given me a beautiful wife and three beautiful daughters you think i'm gonna give up now give me a beautiful home to live in the most beautiful church family that i could ever pass or you think i'm going to give them now you got to be crazy devil you might you might tell me with a lot of stuff but mother's he and the brothers and i've seen too much and i haven't seen half of y'all seen i haven't been half the places y'all been i don't have half experiences y'all have experience but let me tell you something young people if you'll stay in the church long enough one day you'll be like mother zender and brother xander you'll have this beautiful marriage you'll be living you'll be living the rest of your years blessed by god but you gotta keep on keeping on you gotta stay the course you gotta run they don't wait upon the lord shall they do their strength come on somebody you gotta wait upon the lord you gotta keep on keeping on when it seems impossible but it seems like the easiest thing would be to give up you gotta just keep on keeping on he may be seated i'm almost done blessed beyond blessed to pastor a catalyst church oh i already told you i grew up with nothing i grew up with nothing i didn't i didn't attend a big church until i went to bible school i grew up small i listened my mom and dad they were awesome man we raised up a church in new york probably i don't know somewhere around hundred or so we went to north carolina raised there's i know three or four people we started with and raised them up i don't know to maybe 50 60 they went out of memphis and raised up a church i'm not throwing off on my parents but i never went to a big church until i went to calvert tabernacle ibc and i remember and don't judge me for this and there's nothing wrong with it but i idolized these big churches i thought man i just want to go and visit the pentecostals of alexandria i just want to go to stockton california and visit and visit the church in stockton california i remember as a kid man i'll be going to these i'd be going to these camp meetings and i'm thinking to myself if if one day if i could just experience and to think to myself that one day i'd be able to be one of the pastors at the greatest church of them in america listen to me folks you all you all may not even realize that some of you are just visiting you may not even know this is a catalyst church this church is leading the way in so many areas god has blessed this church with leadership with departmental heads and leadership that we are we're having a conference in september a conference that people from all across we have 20 i think it's somewhere around 25 states already represented that have registered to be a part of the conference the movement conference is going to take place they want to know what's going on in maryville tennessee and i'm not bragging about that it's a god thing it's nothing who we are what we've done it's a god thing but if you think i'm gonna give them now after getting to this place after one day i in the past i was just hoping to visit a church and now we're the church's leading churches my god devil you are on the wrong track if you think you're going to get on my case and think that i'm going to walk away when god has brought us so far i plan to leave the episodic movement and not just disciple making i want to lead them in every way why is that is because their souls are they've got to be one to god there's a kingdom of heaven that must be advanced and there's a kingdom of hell that's got to be shunned you think i'm gonna turn back now oh no it's my third day it's my third day it's my third day i finally got to where i want to be the savior's about to show up the savior's about to roll the stone away why would i be dismayed why would i be forlorn why would i be grumbling and complaining about life it's the third day you don't want to give up on the third day stand with me because if you don't stand i'm not going to stop for my conclusion since i couldn't find any verses about quitting i went ahead and found some verses about keeping on is that all right sister cameron i'm not going to give texts you just you just follow me because you're good at it know he not that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize so run that she might obtain be strong therefore and not let not your hands be weak for your work shall be rewarded and let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not fear thou not for i am with thee be not dismayed for i am my god i will strengthen thee yes i will help thee yes i will uphold thee with thy right hand of my righteousness i can do all things through christ which strengtheneth me watch ye steadfast in the faith quit you like men be strong and then i got one more in psalm 37 though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the lord upholdeth him with his hand and somebody shall thank you jesus listen somebody needs just to wave their hands right now with a desire that you've never had a desire before and make a declaration that you've never made before and say devil i'm still here devil i won't give up i won't quit i won't walk away i won't falter i won't drop the baton i'm gonna keep on running i'm gonna keep on racing i'm gonna pass the finish line because i'm in the hand of god that's what david said in psalm 37 he sent thy hand upholding from me i'm standing in the palm of the lord i might fall but i shall get up again i wish we could just end this service today and i'm just going to open this ultra and i just want to make this a place where we can shout where we can worship where we could praise god because i i don't believe we have any disciples walking in mass today i don't i just don't believe that anybody here by this time of the message is saying to themselves i don't know what to do i'm going to give in i'm giving up my whole life is messed up my whole life oh no that's not what kind of church i believe i'm in front of right now i believe i'm in front of a church who's going to rise up and let their worship let their worship let their worship be their declaration that their god is able to bring them out of whatever they're going through and they're going to stand up and they're going to fight like never before come on somebody just one more time if you begin to worship god like you haven't worshiped him today yet just one more time if you start to give him praise like you haven't given him praise yesterday just one more time greater is he that is within me than he that is in this world i will i will i will one more time one more time i'll be back next sunday because one more time come on lift up your foreign lift up your voices lift up your head all your gates and be yourself for the king of glory shall come in who is the king of glory he's here in this place today he's trying to give you strength of jesus of your life victory wake up and realize this is the third day yes i want you to lift their hand high to i've come too far to give them now come on you've seen too many miracles you've experienced too much revival you've been healed too many times you've been delivered too many times you've seen god move too many times memory okay foreign i want to pray over you right now in jesus name every hand lifted come on receive this prayer father every person that is in this place whatever they're going through lord i i know the devil will put a disease of discouragement in lives and in minds and in hearts of your people because that's what he does best but god i rebuke the enemy because just like at calvary when the enemy thought he was doing evil it turned out for our good and lord i pray that every person under the sound of my voice will look back over their life and think about the victories that you have won in each of their lives what you brought them through who you've put them in contact with to get them to where they are today who brought truth into their life i want you to let them think back over their life of the blessings count them one by one and long we begin to think about your goodness and what you've done for us the tricks of the devil fade away and dissolve because god you've been so good i just can't tell at all i can't tell at all come on i want you to do that right now this is how we're gonna end this service i want you to think about what god has done in your life forget about the little things that are affecting you today forget about what's going on today forget about the little matters that that are insignificant when you think about how good god has been to you i want you to think over your life and how god has blessed you out of the billions of people who live on planet earth god you gave us truth you revealed truth to us you gave us a revelation that billions of people have not seen as of yet come on god's been so good he's given health in our bodies he's put a roof over our heads he's blessed us immensely he's put our kids in the best christian school he's given us the greatest church to attend he's given us the greatest senior pastor in life and he's given us the best of the best of the best of the best of the i can't help but think of the good i can't help but think of the victories i can't help but think about how god has brought me through so much and because of that we give you praise at the end of this service we just give you glory at the end of the service we just give you a vocal thanksgiving we give you a hand clap of worship and praise god we applaud you jesus we extol you jesus we adore you jesus everything we do is because of you everything we have is because of you our future is because of you and we give you praise because of it i'm so glad i've been bought i'm so glad i'm a child i'm so glad that i'm a king's kid and lord god i want to start thinking like a king's kid come on just for a moment longer come the devil is a liar the devil is the father of lies the devil has no dominion over your mind he has no dominion you are god you belong to him his spirit is within you you are god's property you've been adopted by god the devil has no authority in your life you got to rebuke him and tell him you have no place in my mind you have no place in my family you have no place in my home i rebuke you because the battle is the lord's i'm not even gonna fight y'all i'm just gonna step back and let god do what he does best and he's gonna deliver and he's gonna save and he's going to heal and he's going to make me victorious because i'm victorious through him and through the blood of the lamb keep your eyes closed keep your eyes closed come on the holy ghost wants to minister i don't even know what he wants to do but i feel victory in y'all i feel victory in the people of god in this place a his presence he's here beautifully sure the holy ghost like a dove has settled upon this place come on i'm not trying to make something happen i i just feel like there's people here that haven't felt this presence in a while i want you to be able to feel it for a moment longer for victory i see it's on the horizon thank you victory i'm gonna see victory oh a victory belongs to you belongs to jesus come on just one more time won't you just lift up some praise to you