Transcript of a published sermon by Floyd Odom, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
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Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
Summary
- He opens in the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke: two disciples on the Emmaus road, a stranger who joins them unrecognized, a meal in the town restaurant — and bread that is blessed and then broken, at which moment their eyes are opened. That, he says, is why the house has gathered at Because of the Times: to be blessed. Yet even in his own deliberate praying that morning he caught himself asking habitually to be blessed, never to be broken, and he puts the thesis of the sermon on it: we thrive on the blessings of God, but we actually survive when he breaks us.
- The church, he says, demands that the pulpit, the musicians, and the vocalists bless it, and sings lustily that blessed assurance is its own — but nobody sings of broken assurance, and the word broken will not fit the rhythm of the song. It would not hurt anyone in the house to lay on his face and pray to be broken the way Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. He calls the ministers and priests of the Lord to stand between the porch and the altar and take up the old prayer that God would spare his people and not give his heritage to reproach; the age has room for Elijah's fire, he says, but no appetite for Jeremiah's tears.
- Jesus, he says, was the master breaker of bread, and three times over the Gospel he cited shows the same order — first the blessing, then the breaking: the loaves and fish before the five thousand were blessed in his lifted hands before they were broken; the seven loaves likewise were blessed before they were broken; and at the last supper he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it with the word that it was his body broken for them. The Emmaus disciples knew him in that same act because they had seen that man break bread before.
- Revival, he argues, is not a technique but a condition: a broken spirit in the pulpit, a broken ministry at the altar, a baptistry dripping at every service. The prodigal did not come home until he was broken in spirit and in purse; Peter was not the evangelist of Pentecost until he had gone out and wept bitterly; David was not a man after God's own heart until he pled to be purged with hyssop and made white as snow; Jacob did not become Israel until his thigh was broken; and Barnabas came to church wealthy and left a beggar, richer in the things of God. He begs the conference to forgive its arrogance, its Pentecostal pride, and to take up the promise made to a people called by God's name who humble themselves and pray.
- Against them he sets the unbroken: Cain, offered the chance and driven from God's presence for refusing it; Saul, who lost throne and crown because his spirit was never broken; Judas, who lost his apostleship the same way; the rich young ruler, who walked away sorrowful rather than face life bankrupt; and the rich man in purple and fine linen, who was never broken at all. The Pentecostal movement of the deep South, he says, is blessed above measure — preachers, singers, talent, anointing — but what God needs is a piece of bread willing to be crushed in the Master's hands.
- He turns to the nation he loves and reads its condition as a brokenness refused: thousands of abortions and divorces daily, the right-to-die debate, drugs, disease, and crime that no legislature in Washington or any statehouse can check. Nine generations have passed since fifty-six men pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in a declaration most Americans have never read — men who were not rabble-rousers but lawyers, merchants, and planters, who lost fleets, homes, wives, and lives for the pledge. What politicians cannot change, he says, God's praying people can.
- He retells the story of the one solitary figure of Galilee — born in an obscure village, a carpenter until thirty, three years an itinerant preacher with no book, no office, no home, no credentials but himself — and insists that all the armies and navies and governments of history have not affected mankind like that one life. Then the works of that life pour out in a survey: fetters broken, the palsy healed, the lame walking, the prodigal restored, the lost coin and the lost sheep found, the Good Samaritan's oil and wine, the widow's son and the ruler's daughter and Martha's brother raised — and the climax he makes them hear twice: Jesus resurrected himself, the only one who ever did, the one who declared that if this temple were destroyed he would raise it up again.
- The healing catalogue turns personal. Jesus still heals, he says — and then he answers his own heckled question: what about 1974, when his five-year-old daughter Lorinda was struck with insulin-dependent diabetes and still takes injections every day, and 1975, when his baby daughter Amanda was smitten with the very same disease? He did not come, he says, to make the house feel good but to make himself feel good: Jesus still heals diabetes. The list rolls on — emphysema, encephalitis, gout, Hodgkin's disease, lupus, meningitis, nervous breakdowns, palsy, polio, paralysis, broken hearts, broken homes, broken churches — broken things of every kind, and the preacher's own resolve underneath it: break me; not my will, but thine be done.
- He preaches Calvary without prettiness: the bread of life afflicted, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, bruised and chastised, condemned at a religious kangaroo court, crowned with thorns, numbered with the transgressors, his soul poured out unto death. He announces that a doctor will come and help him describe, from an uneducated standpoint he says of himself, what was done to that body — and then preaches it himself first, in graphic detail and without flinching: the throbbing head, the fever and chills, the lacerations, the nausea and dry heaves, the ruined insides, the loss of every bodily control. Do not come to him preaching a pretty Calvary or a religious Calvary, he says: Calvary was dirty.
- When he takes the sermon up again it is in the old borrowed-poem he recites: Jesus borrowed a boat to teach from, borrowed a room for the Passover, borrowed a cave for a grave — but the crown that he wore and the cross that he bore were his own. Hymn lines weave through his own voice — the cross borne alone and the cross for everyone, the Saviour bleeding, the light first seen at the cross, the cry to be saved at the cross — and he lands it on the fact he repeats like a drumbeat: not one member of that skeleton was broken, yet Jesus himself said, take and eat, this is my body broken for you. He speaks it first to two families in the house whose own children are gone.
- Then he tells how he learned what brokenness actually is. Less than two years before, at a ministers' and wives' seminar in Covington, Louisiana, his daughter Lorinda called him at two in the morning screaming that Amanda was not breathing. He drove the three-and-a-half-hour road to Jackson in an hour and forty-five minutes, praying the whole way over the goodness of the girl — the office receptionist, the Sunday school teacher, who had never known the depths of sin. A heartbeat was found; hope rose and fell through a day of dialysis and doctors; and he stood with his wife at the bedside and watched her breathe her last. His dreams and his hopes were crushed in the hands of what he calls the brain breaker. May the sixth is her birthday, he says — no more cake, no more candles, no more balloons — and May the twelfth is a death day he cannot commemorate; he has lost her smile, her wedding day, the grandchildren she would have given him.
- He takes up Paul as the pattern of the blessed-and-broken life, preaching the apostle's pedigree in the first person — circumcised the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, converted outside Damascus, baptized by Ananias, prophet and teacher at Antioch, evangelist and missionary, preacher to governors and kings — and then the underside of the same life: labours more abundant, stripes above measure, prisons, shipwrecks, forty stripes save one received from the Jews five times over. We want Paul's blessings, he says, but not Paul's breakings. In the same breath he grieves with another family in the house whose son's birthday had fallen the day before — birthdays, he says, are not something to look forward to anymore — and lands the movement on the old charge he repeats over a chair carried to the pulpit: be not weary in well-doing, for in due season you shall reap if you faint not.
- The cross, he insists, is not pretty and cannot be polished; he almost brought shoe polish to the pulpit to prove the point, and his last words to his wife at the motel that morning were that he hoped he would not embarrass her — and here he stands in the mess of it anyway, singing his broken assurance. He takes the house to church one more time in Jesus's parabolic ministry: over here the Pharisee praying his own greatness, behind the shadows the publican who can only smite his breast and pray for mercy; then to the offering, where he has Sister Vesta walk slowly across the front while he tells of the little widow who had just come from saying goodbye at a cemetery and dropped in her two mites — she came with two mites, but when she left that church, she left broke. He names a boy in the house who had lost his daddy among the families he is determined will get through this thing, and he closes on his knees with the invitation repeated like a litany: will you go with me now, will you forgive now, will you reach, will you pour it all out and give it all.
Scriptures: Luke 24; Joel 2:17; Matthew 14:19; Matthew 15:36; Matthew 26:26; Psalm 51:7; John 2:19
Scripture index: Luke 24; Joel 2:17; Matthew 14:19; Matthew 15:36; Matthew 26:26; Psalm 51:7; John 2:19.
Transcript
thank you god bless you you may be seated in the Book of Luke chapter 24 the Bible teaches us that two of the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ were walking to a village by the name of Emmaus Emmaus by definition is defined to mean Warm Springs Emmaus or Warm Springs geographically was seven miles northwest of the city of Jerusalem two disciples were going on the third day after the death of Jesus Christ this was the day of his resurrection but just three days ago he had been horribly mistreated ultimately crucified suffering a terrible death one of the disciples name was Cleophus the Bible declares that he and his friend were walking to Emmaus and their countenance was obviously very very sad as they were walking somewhere between Jerusalem and Emmaus a stranger appeared to them and asked why is it that she walked and are sad and they responded to his inquiry with this answer have you not heard the things that are come to pass there in these days and the stranger said what things Cleophus and his friend responded by saying concerning Jesus of Nazareth who was a prophet mighty and worried and Mahdi indeed now this stranger that Joe and cleofus and his friend was none other than the man called Jesus but Jesus a stranger to them was not recognized because the Bible declares that their eyes were Holden and they they did not know him Jesus began to teach them from the law of Moses and the prophets concerning himself by this time his Bible study was over and their wandering trip had led them to their destination of Emmaus and the Bible said that Jesus made it though he would have gone further but cleofas and his colleague said to Jesus now there stranger abide here with us and they constrained him when he made as though he would go further they invited him into the town restaurant for a meal and when they entered into the restaurant the Bible says that when the meal was brought to them it was nothing but bread and when the bread was brought to Jesus Jesus took the bread from the platter of the waiter and he blessed it and then he break it before he break it he did bless it you and I are here at because of the times to be blessed I'm not certain even as I forced myself to pray deliberately this morning if I really did pray Lord break me but I did here myself myself say habitually Lord bless me as I have prayed for my friends who have graced this pulpit in this conference not one time did I pray for God to break them but I did pray for God to bless them we live we thrive on the blessings of God it takes a very keen insight though to understand that we really survive when he breaks us and not not altogether when he blesses us the Pentecostals of my generation we demand the pulpit to bless us with our preaching we demand
musicians to bless us with their musical instruments we demand the vocalist to bless us with their songs but never have I heard a church member say break me never had I heard a congregation say break me we live on blessings we throw our heads back and lustily we sing blessed assurance Jesus is mine but never do we sing broken assurance Jesus is mine again we sing I am blessed I am blessed every day that I live I am blessed when I wake up in the morning or when I lay my head to rest I am blessed I am blessed the word broken just doesn't fit in the rhythm and the rhyme of the song brother Jaron Davis it's hard to fit I am broken I am broken every day that I live I am broken when I wake up in the morning or when I lay my head to rest I am broken I am broken we are a beautiful audience that because of the times however let's not understand that we are not here because of who we are and what we are it wouldn't hurt a one of us gentlemen to lay on our face before God and pray for God to break our will lane as it wouldn't hurt a one of you to weep tears down your cheek and as for God to break your will it bothers me when we come to the Pentecostal churches with our arrogance with our pride and with our haughtiness and we think that we're doing God a favor just because we're coming to church ladies and gentlemen I submit to you for your consideration I'm here today because of a man called Jesus prayed in a bloody prayer chamber of Gethsemane not my will but thy will be done I would propose to you it is time for the ministers and the priests of the Lord to stand between the porch and the altar and join the son of pol Joelle and cry and pray O Lord spare thy people and give not thy heritage to reproach how many times have we demanded where is the Lord God of Elijah we have paraphrase that to say where are the Elijah's but it doesn't sound comfortable to say where are the Jeremiah's Elijah brings fire down from heaven Elijah brings miracles Elijah brings ecstasy and there's plenty of room for that in the United Pentecostal church but I've never heard for someone pray raise up the lamenting Prophet Jeremiah we're not comfortable with tears we're not comfortable with sobs but we love the dance yes I do we love the shout yes I do but I thank God Sister Mangan that you taught me yesterday how to pour it out I pray that we can be broken before this audience makes a stream Jesus Christ was the master breaker of bread in the book of Matthew chapter 14 and verse 19 before he fed the 5,000 men not counting the women and the children bread and fish were placed in his hands but before he broke that bread and fish he lifted his head and he blessed it the book of Matthew chapter 15 in verse 36 and Jesus took the seven loaves and before he broke the seven loaves he held those lows in his tender hands and he blessed those loaves and at the last from Matthew chapter 26 and verse 26 the Bible says and he took bread while he held that bread he blessed it and then he break it and he said to the audience take and eat this is my body which is broken for you now was Jesus is a stranger on the Emmaus Road we find that he joins Cleophus and a colleague of Cleophas and the Bible declares that when they arrived at the restaurant of Emmaus that when the dinner was brought
he held the bread in his hands and until this time they have not recognized him they had forgotten that this was the one that took that they put the flicker on the eye of the blind they had forgotten this was the one that put the vibration of sound on the ear of the death they had forgotten that this was the one that woke the whitecap waves of the sea of kanessa rent or Galilee they had forgotten that this was the one that paid a visit to the cemetery of Bethany and resurrected Miriam office brother they forgot that this was the one that had not only raised the dead but put a leap in the leg of the lame had straightened the cripples feet had cleansed the lepers skin and now when he took the bread and begin to break those laws their eyes were open because they remembered how once before they saw that man break the bread if you won't his blessings you've got to understand they don't come free but they come first of all when we are broken I'm not worthy to shout if I cannot cry I'm not worthy to dance if I cannot weep but I want him to bless me but if you do nothing else break we all I think I need to make a statement brother Anthony Mangan he's heard me preach this one twice and I'm here today by his spiritual request and don't worry about him understanding the mess of crumbs that will be scattered around my feet before I'm finished me breaking the loaves of the Baker's bread is nothing but a visual but you and I must understand that we're nothing but dough in the hands of the master baker you want a revival in your church have a broken spirit you want miracles in your ministry have a broken spirit you want souls in your prayer rooms have a broken ministry you want your altars filled have a broken ministry you won't your baptistry dripping with water at every service have a broken ministry please pardon my pulpit manners but forgive us of our arrogance forgive us of our Pentecostal pride forgive us of our holiness I pray Oh God break my will break my nature brighten my attitude that I can be found in his likeness the prodigal son did not return to his father until his spirit was broken and until he was financially broken Peter was not the Evangelist on the day of Pentecost on the cobblestone streets of Jerusalem until he knew what it was like to go out and the weep bitterly David was not a man after God's own heart until he pled to purge me with hyssop and I can be white as snow Jacob did not become Israel until his thigh bone was broken the room was not filled with potpourri until the woman brought the alabaster box Barnabas did not become the leader of a New Testament church until he sold all that he had and placed it at the Apostles feet he came to church wealthy but he left a beggar but all how much more wealthy was he in the things of God them there's a move of God in this room today there's a move of God in this conference there's an appeal by the Holy Ghost to the Pentecostal community to tear down our wheel to destroy our spirit I please beg you to forgive me for being repentant but we cannot preach a good enough sermon to fill our altars we cannot have a good enough choir to fill our churches but when God's people that are called by his name will humble themselves and pray and seek his face then he will hear from heaven I fear that I might be among that group that refuses to be broken the Bible is star-studded if you please
with those that could have been broken but they refused to be broken God gave Cain the oldest son of Adam and even opportunity to be broken but he was driven from the presence of God because he resisted being broken the bible says Saul lost his throne and lost his crown because his spirit was never broken judas iscariot you lost your ministry you lost your Apostleship because you refused to be broken the rich young ruler turned and walked away sorrowfully because he could not stand to face life a broken a bankrupt Papa and the Bible says he'd worked away sorrowfully because he had much I can speak for the Pentecostal movement in the deep south for sure we're blessed above measure we have the preachers we have the singers we have the talent we have the anointing but that stench in the nostrils of God what he needs is a piece of bread that is willing to be crushed and willing to be crumbled in the Masters hands the rich man was dressed in purple and fine linen he was never broken I fear the plight of the nation that I love the United States of America from the Atlantic to the Pacific from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico I love this land with all my heart but I'm be stirred in the Soraa direction that we're going politically the direction that we're going socially and the direction that we're going religiously the statistics speak for themselves four thousand three hundred and fifty eight babies every year every day in abortion clinics 3219 divorces daily not only that but we've legalized abortion and dr. Kevorkian I would like to make a public statement to you it's a matter of time until the law is passed the right to die ladies and gentlemen I don't come with the message of death but I come with the hope of in Jesus Christ do you have eternal life but to live in Jesus you've got to die let us worship Him alcohol and alcoholism crime of every imagination drug czars drug zones drug wars and drug addiction now from draft dodgers it's Flag burners homosexuals and politics homosexuals and pews and homosexuals and Pope it's social diseases like syphilis gonorrhea and the dreaded HIV virus are spreading across promiscuous America and epidemic like statistics illegitimate children are on the streets of America mr. Clinton Republican Party Democrat Party you can't pass enough laws in the White House nor in the state houses nor in the courthouses to check the epidemic of crime but I know what can change things if we asked God will come to our rescue don't come to me that these prayers are impossible for God to answer it's a dud he can die he can do it if we are pray in a broken spirit nine generations have come and gone since the founders of this great land pinned the Declaration of Independence but few of us if any know anything about the contents of the Declaration of Independence our nation was born on a pledge made by 56 courageous and brave men who felt that freedom and liberty were worth fighting for and if necessary it was worth dying for him these 56 men signed their names to a declaration that would change the course of history they agreed unanimously they agreed unanimously may God cast division away from our churches may God cast division away from our churches may God cast division away from our churches they agreed unanimously we mutually pledge to each other Our Lives our Fortunes and our sacred honor Thomas Jefferson 33 years old it took in 17 days to draft that text and the Continental Congress adopted on July the 4 1776 King George of England
denounced these 56 men as traitors and they would be executed by hanging but these men that signed they were not rabble rousers they were not warfare guerrillas if you would 24 of them were lawyers and jurist 11 of them were merchants none of them were farmers and Lords plantation owners Carter Braxton of Virginia who was a wealthy planter so his fleet of ships were out to sea because he signed that pledge when the war was fought finished he died in poverty and he died in rags Thomas Lynch Jr made the pledge he was aristocrat on the Lord's Plantation after he signed his health failed his wife and mr. Lynch sell to France only to be captured by the British and to be executed it seemed vandals looted the homes of Perry Hall Hayward Kleber Middleton Rutledge Walton and Winnett Thomas McKean was so harassed by the enemy that he was forced to move his family five times in five months to survive his family lived in forests and in caves Thomas Hayward was captured when Charlestown failed Francis Lewis had his home and everything he owned destroyed his wife was captured his wife was raped his wife was tortured his wife was in prison but this man Frances Lewis said if it costs me my sacred honor I'm gonna have a land of the free Americans please hear me I'm not here making a political statement but if America doesn't wake up we are about to take a step too many if America doesn't turn around we're going to plunge into a godless eternity it cannot be changed by the politicians but it can be changed by God's praying people Thank You Larry Clark I know you're here somewhere and thank you for the nice sweet card that you said by the odom I'm praying for you and don't hold anything back let it all go then that I will Larry I have come to tell you that if a thorough pia can experience 60,000 threescore to be filled with the holy ghost in one service it can happen in america if this didn't happen in alexandria it can happen in Hattiesburg when we find ourselves broken before the hand of God it can happen John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside when she was dying their 13 children fled in all directions for their lives his fields his grist meals were laid waste for more than a year mr. Hart lived in the deep forests and the caves after the war that he survived he returned to his home only the fine and destroyed his children gone his wife dead mr. Hart died in a few weeks from exhaustion and from a broken heart John Hancock stood outside the cities of the city of Boston Massachusetts and he was heard to scream to the putt to the top of his lungs burn Boston burn Boston burn Boston burn if it costs John Hancock everything that he owns give me my liberty and kill me my freedom I fear that many of us in the United Pentecostal church we may not remember the great sacrifice that my forefathers of this the 20th century invested into me having what I have today what we are seeing in the United Pentecostal church did not come by some religious hocus-pocus it did not come by pulling the proverbial rabbit from the magician's hat but we are here today because of sacrifice we are here today because of persecution we're here today because of our ridicule we are here today because of shame and I'm sorry if I must apologize I've walked around the Sun 48 and 1/2 times and I have not found reason yet to walk away from my heritage this is the greatest thing that I've ever found it's the greatest thing the world has ever known can we be broken with our pulpit ability and I think God is nauseated sometimes at our pulpit Polish God is nauseated at time with our Pope and oratory and eloquence it's nothing but junk it doesn't matter preacher if you can't
get your adjectives and adverbs right your prepositions and pronouns right the best thing for you to do is to walk out of a hot prayer meeting and an old-fashioned prayer room and don't come and tell your congregation what Matthew Henry says they could care less what Adam Clarke says they could care less about the Greek in the Hebrew all they want to know is what does Jesus say what does Jesus think what would Jesus do for me we preach about that man Jesus and he wants to bless it Christ he was born in an obscure village of Bethlehem it is believed that he was the child of a peasant woman for Joseph and Mary had nothing as far as worldly goods as far as we know Jesus Christ worked as a carpenter until age 30 at age 30 he became an itinerant preacher he never wrote a book he never held public office he never attended college he had no home of his own not even a place to lay his head large cities were practically unknown to him he never did any of the things that normally accompany greatness he had no credentials but himself after three years as a public preacher the public opinion turned against him and his death the executioner's gamble for his only earthly possession and that was his karma 219 citrus have passed since then man-wolf the shores of Galilee but he is still the central figure of all the human race of all the armies that have ever marched of all the neighbors that have ever sailed of all the of all the keys that have arraigned and the government's that have a rule combined they have not affected the lives of mankind like that one solitary figure from Galilee who knew the value of a Gethsemane experience when he prayed not my will but thy will be done he's our greatest asset I know this is just country boy preaching that's all I are you're not going to help a move of God in your church of Jesus isn't in charge forget it you can build yourself a pedestal and rule on the throne called your pulpit but until you lift him up but you're not going to see a move of God he is our greatest asset he is supreme he is supernatural he is human and divine and infallible and exhausted infant in height input an in depth universal in duration immeasurable in power unsurpassed in preaching and teaching unequal in simplicity but yet his personal and application everybody say Jesus everybody say Jesus Jesus is the fountain in which the dying martyrs of all ages have cooled their hot faces Jesus is the pillow on which the saints of all ages have rested their weary heads Jesus still breaks the fetters of the slave no time for poor pet hotdogs ISM but you don't have to go to Alcoholics Anonymous to be delivered from alcohol I'm for the social programs I'm certainly not taking a pulpit stance against them but you don't have to be dried out in a rehabilitation center to get all for your cocaine and your heroin and your marijuana one trip to the cross hi one trip to the cross I say Jesus still breaks the fetters of a slave while we preach against the fetters of tobacco drugs sexual promiscuity and alcoholism you and I as Pentecostals we're bound by a fear we're bound by our doubt we're bound by our intimidation would the God that you and I could raise our chains of fear our fetters of doubt as I come Lord set me free I would suggest to you that he who the Sun has set free is free indeed let's praise him Jesus takes the heat off Annalise fierce fevers this is pretty personal to me sister Odom pretty personal to you brother and sister Trapani pretty personal to you brother and sister she make and my wife told me about the birthday it touches my heart Jesus takes
the pain on a party jesus takes the sting out of death Jesus takes the gloom out of the grave Jesus cast out the Devils from their synagogues and he also cast out the Devils from a Ghaderi cemetery jesus healed the palsy of capernaum and jesus healed the lame of bethesda jesus restored the prodigal son Jesus found the lost Cohen and Jesus carried the lost sheep Jesus is the one that is moved with the compassion of the Good Samaritan Jesus pours in the oil poured in today God and Jesus pours and the wine poured in today God Jesus binds the wounds and Jesus takes care of us Jesus pays our bill yay Jesus resurrects the widow son and Jesus resurrects the ruler's daughter Jesus resurrection area Martha's brother and bless your darling heart Jesus resurrected himself either you're sleeping or you didn't hear me the first person did not resurrect the second person the Bible said that Jesus declared in John 2 a 19 destroyed this temple and I will raise it up again he's the only resurrection and he's the only life I would to God that you and I could have a surge that holy breath of hair to resurrect the power of godliness resurrect the power of holiness resurrect the power a praise and worship we're letting some precious things die on our pews and in our pulpits but the resurrection is here I have watched some of the Young's on your face and mouth as I reflected on what Jesus did in the three and a half years of his earthly ministry I would propose to you that if you're bored about what Jesus did yesteryear you can't get excited about what Jesus is doing this year I say if you're bored about him walking the seas of Galilee if you're bored about him breaking loaves and fish if you're bored about him resurrecting Lazarus if you're bored about him telling pardon me essa my faith has saved thee gold highway be healed you can't get excited about the million he'll last night you can't get excited about the drug addict being delivered but I come to tell you he's the same yesterday and today and forever and he changes not let's shout unto the Lord to sum it up Jesus opened blind eyes to sum it up Jesus opened their fears he straightened quickened legs he straightened crippled feet he straightened withered hands he cleaned lepers bodies and he delivered the possessed mind I haven't got to apologize for anything I don't own anything but what God has given me I've been preaching his name for 30 years and I fear not to tell you that there is an attack of depression that is visiting personages there's an attack of depression that is visiting pulpits and the sweaty proud preacher from South Mississippi has come to tell you that greater is He that is within you than the depressive spirits that rise up against you I would suggest to you that jesus heals all genres and arthritis jesus heals from O blood and heart blood come on now come on now I say Jesus will heal all types of cancer start at your stall and go to your heel he's the healer of all my diseases and if he can't heal me he can't save me but bless God he saved me and he's my healer jesus heals diabetes diabetes did you say diabetes Odom what about in 1974 when your five year old daughter Lorinda was afflicted with insulin dependent diabetes and she still takes injections
every day of her life are you going to stand there and say preacher that your God heals diabetes when your baby daughter Amanda one year later 1975 she was smitten with the very same disease treatable yes incurable incurable no I have come to serve the Spirit that represents diabetes this notice Jesus still heals diabetes and I don't say that to make you feel good I say that to make me feel good he heals emphysema he heals encephalitis he heals fever and he heals gout he heals Hodgkin's disease he heals jaundice he heals lupus he heals meningitis you not go like this one but he still heals nervous breakdowns too he Hills Parkington he Hills palsy he Hills polio and he Hills paralysis he Hills rheumatism he heals harasses for hoses and sclerosis he heals broken hearts broken lives broken homes broken marriages broken churches broken ministry head break me not my will but thy will be done after everything that they did or he did for them everything I cannot imagine any time Jesus would to church you expected something to happen is it here today I'm doing my best not to shout but if I obey the Holy Ghost in me I would cut a rug right now when I think of the goodness of Jesus and all is done for me my soul cries hallelujah and just in case you're resting I've got a right to praise it I've got a right to shout and nobody yep all right like the children of the Lord that seen the light once I was lost but now I'm found once I was blind but now I see once I was on the road to despair but I'm on the road to glory let's shout them to the Lord regardless of what he did for them when their hour came and they had an opportunity to take within their grasp the bread of life he was afflicted a man of sorrow a man acquainted with grief he was betrayed and he was bruised for my iniquities the chastisement of my peace was upon him and even with that in mind they condemned him to death at a religious kangaroo court he was crowned with thorns and he was crucified he was despised and he was forsaken he was grieved and he was hated lasted more and then he made his grave with the wicked first he made intercession for the transgressors next he was numbered with the transgressors he was oppressed he was persecuted he was pierced and system and annihilated again last night then he poured out his soul unto death he was rejected and he was reviled he was spit upon he was stricken he was slaughtered he was sacrifice he was tempted and he was tried he was whipped and he was wounded I'm gonna try it but doctor Clippers going to come help me from an
uneducated standpoint this is what happened to him because of the thorns in his brow a throbbing headache wracked his head scolding fever cinnamon chills and rigors because of the multiple lacerations and wounds on his body Lukas and fleam ran down his nose and he cost it out of his mouth because of a slamming fists of Roman soldiers in his belly waves of nausea broken and you want to come strut in it because of the times and I want to come and prove how pretty I can preach it because of the times and we want to sing to each other and tell everybody everything is doing fine when I'm talking about my savior with waves of nausea in his stomach I'm talking about him not being able to hold the convulsions he dry heaves unto the remains of his Last Supper is vomited out on his chest blood ooze and familiars blood from his eyes intros hanging from his side because of the beating of the cat of nine tails a ruptured appendix a ruptured spleen ruptured intestines a ruptured liver a ruptured heart and back the well if I got to say this in me you're careful with it here he is on my cross and your cross he cannot control his kidneys he cannot control his bladder and if it embarrasses you I beg your pardon but his own urine ran down his body because they was going to see to it that he was going to be broken once and for all if that doesn't embarrass you this one will what the varmint didn't put on his chest his bowels cannot be controlled and his own body features a soil his body don't come to me and preacher pretty Calvary don't come to me and preacher religious Calvary Calvary was dirty Calvary was repulsive Calvary
healed you said it best brother Odum it was my cross it was your cross Jesus Christ God incarnate God walking in shoe-leather went to Calvary instead of me I praise him for that he borrowed a ship in which to sit to teach the multitude he burned a nest in which to rest he never had a home so rude but the crown that he wore and the cross that he bore were his own the crown that he wore and the cross that he bore whereas on he borrowed a room on the way to the tomb the Passover lamb to eat they borrowed a cave for him a grave they borrowed the winding-sheet but the crown that he wore in the cross that he bore were his own the crown that he wore in the cross that he bore were his own must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free preacher preacher's wife no no there's a cross for everyone and there's a cross for me alas and did my Savior bleed and did my sovereign die would he devote that sacred head for such a word as I cross at the cross or I first saw the light and the burdens of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I received my sight now I'm happy all the day Lord Savior him I cry hear my cry hear my cry trembling into thy arms i fly Oh save me at the cross I have sinned but thou has died thou has died thou has died and thy mercy let me I know save me at the cross nothing pretty about the cross though I perish I will pray I will pray I will pray thou of life the living way Oh save me at the cross now has said thy grace is free thy grace is free thy grace is free have compassion O Lord on me and save me where they broke here he said it I didn't first of all not one member of his skeleton was broken but he said take and eat this is my body that is broken for you brother and sister Trapani in memory of your two signs brother and sister she make a memory of [name redacted] and if there are others here on this wintry afternoon that would hear me speak that is said goodbye her hurting lonely cemetery as astral demand I did less than two years ago I thought I knew how to be broken when I went on a three-day fast haha I thought I knew how to be broken when I would pray all night occasionally I thought I knew how to be broken when I would stagger out of my pulpit after a weary Sunday morning and I weary Sunday night from preaching in both encounters I would lose 10 12 pounds of Sunday fluids literally seeping for my body because of pressure and exhaustion I was in your section brother Simpkins on that fateful night of May the 11th Covington Lousiana ministers wives and seminar you house me at the holiday end and it coming to remember 2 a.m. that morning my daughter Linda called him with a scream she said daddy daddy Amanda isn't breathing her heart isn't beating I'll walk for my stupor what but Amanda's dead no I threw my clothes on through my belongings in my vehicle I needed gas at the adjacent Shell station brother Marcella you may know what that station is that I put in ten dollars worth all I had was a 20 out through the Twinner yet the register and ran for my vehicle and up the highway I went as fast as it could go my heart pounding within me God this is a true no God spare me this she's never so known the depths of sin she's never worn makeup
she's never worn excessive jewelry or jewelry she's never cut her hair she's never gone to the worldly places a good Christian girl her debt is dull the office receptionist the Sunday school teacher why not take a drug addict when I take a prostitute when I take a that was pounding in my soul as I drove the three and a half supposedly three and a half hours to Jackson and I covered in an hour and 45 minutes I rented that baby's bedside and they had miraculously after 45 minutes doctor of her not breathing or a heartbeat they found a heartbeat and I render her side and kissed her and left her and I just knew this was the beginning of a great miracle but the day wore long and the day wore hard they put her on dialysis and the neurologist said this is the only hope and I think if we get a kidneys functioning Amanda may turn the man I couldn't hardly wait this was the news that I was waiting for him the nurse came out and said brother Odom I've got good news for you she's responding her vitals are doing better I call my mother I said mama man disbanded I think we gotta pull through this thing as I was still on the phone talking to my mother the doctor and a host of medical people came running to me and said Reverend Reverend you've got to come my wife and I joined clothes at my baby's bedside with the host of ministers and friends that were there with us and I just can't tell you how I felt when I watched her little lungs breathe the last and I saw her little body twist the last polling thing I knew that I was in the hands of the brain breaker my dreams were being crushed my hope for being crushed she was precious I loved her so much now I'm not trying to work on your emotions I'm just telling all of you good folks has never been to the old four brokenness get ready if the Lord tarries your time is coming it's either fall on the rock or the rock fall on you i well know that my time has elapsed okay can I take a moment longer with much grandeur we preach about Paul he gives us his pedigree in the book of Philippians circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews an all-american kid a Pharisee zealous concerning the law I was righteous and blameless men I was converted outside the city limits of Damascus by Jesus Christ himself I speak in tongues more than you all I was baptized by Ananias the great preacher of Damascus calling on the the Lord I would serve my apprenticeship under the Sun of constellation yay Barnabas I become a prophet and a teacher at the Apostolic Church of Antioch I was a successful evangelist a successful missionary I cast out devils I pray the prayer of faith I preached to Agrippa a Fiat breach to Felix I preached the Festus I started churches in Athens and Berea and current and Derby and Ephesus and Galatia Iconium Lystra Macedonia Philip I everything I did turn the gold but that's just what you see on the surface behind the scenes I'm in labor some more abundant I'm in stripes above measure I'm in prisons more frequent and dance-off five pounds received I from the Jews forty stripes save one three times oh we want to have the poles ministry but we don't want to go with the shipwrecks with Paul give us your blessings Paul but don't give us your breakings Paul brother and sister she make I didn't even ask permission of you but when my wife said that yesterday was [name redacted]'s birthday I cried for you last night you see birthdays aren't something to look forward to anymore other dreads just read read that may the six that's my baby's birthday there's no more cake there's no more candles there's no more balloons there's no more gifts not only the six but you see we can't commemorate death day May the 12th what did I lose when I lost that baby I lost first of all a beautiful smile Thanksgiving turkey and dressing this doesn't taste as good as it used to Christmas lights and tinsel doesn't blink as bright as they used to a lot of
loneliness filled my Christmases and Thanksgiving a loss to sweet smile I lost our youthful have I lost her wedding day I lost grandkids she was going to give me I lost it man brother and sister Simpkins may God bless you today sister Klepper you may not be aware of this but I ask your doctor husband if be okay if I would have pray for you I just sensed there's a need of a touch of the Lord in your heart and life don't jump at that I'm not spooky ISM folks but if you're here today and you feel like that everything is falling apart your ministry is dull and dead and drab you walk out of your pulpit feeling worse than what you felt when you went into it you dread Sunday morning Sunday School you wish the Sunday night would never come and it's not because your back slid you're just under it man you're really you're just under it he led me shunda be not weary in well-doing give me that chair brother be not weary in well-doing for in due season Yuri if you faint the cross is it pretty the prod that the crosses are dignified did you really come out there here polish this morning I almost brought me some shoe polish to the pulpit with me to show you some polish what I'm doing today is somewhat embarrassing but because I'm doing it for the man who did it for me it brings no embarrassment to my face I wouldn't be here today had it not been for a man that carried my sins and carried my lord come on preacher weighted under the load the cross is never comfortable it to never fit on the shoulder just right the cross is never it's just always awkward it's always out of place oh I want you to hear me is that if you got the cross on the day put your bread in the hands of the baker and don't worry let him break it let it break you let him crush you let him Humble you you will arise your comeback you up not your big brother Anthony I've been preaching too long it's at times like this I look at myself and I say my god what have I done I looked at my wife and my last words to her at the motel this morning I said baby I hope I don't embarrass you then look what I've done they look at this mess broken assurance Jesus is mine oh what a foretaste glory divine I am broken and if I'm not broken Lord let me break myself if my will is carnal let me break myself if I'm slipping around living a double standard let me break myself if I'm not what I portrayed to the public that I am let me break myself let me take you to church with me real quick Jesus went to church in his parabolic ministry brother Trapani come now brother sister Trapani we're going to have a great day and Here I am preaching about one baby gone why aren't you the one preaching this sermon sir you qualify you have a double portion of my grief I owed to you sir Jesus would the church in his parabolic ministry and he gets us in quite lien listen prayer meeting over here prayer meeting over there listen and over here prayer meeting is mark I thank you that I'm not as other than our come on preachers take off your mask quit lying to us we know it's not being doing quite as great as you want us to think it is you have happenings in your church like we all do don't pretend that you got the perfect little group praying over here lord I thank you that I'm not as other men are why let me tell you about me I pray and I fast and I give my tithe and I'm not unjust I'm not an
extortioner I'm a great guy I'm I'm really the church member that you've got to have I am the spoke in the wheel of your church without me your financial committees in trouble without me your social committees in trouble you really need me in your church Lord I'm a great guy jesus said to choose this side we go behind the shadows a dark dim corner there he stands unshaven uncouth and unkept he doesn't have the vernacular and the language he doesn't have the heritage the education the wealth all he has is a sad sob story and if you listen over the last two centuries three centuries yay anybody for 19th centuries I can hear him pray seven words lord have mercy Oh sinner and the wreck and the brokenness on his life he smote his breast missing wait wait let's go to church one more time this time it's offering ah the wealthy are giving sister Mangan I want to say thank you for taking me in your heart and loving me sister Odom and I would never be grateful enough because you loved us and you've known us for years but you have a way of just taking us in sister Vesta Mangan would you work with the preacher for a moment and just slowly walk across the front here with me a time or two just this way once and back do you see would you and Here Come a little old would a woman to church no fat check account no CDs no no stocks and bonds she probably just left the cemetery where she said goodbye to the husband of her youth with weeping tears the place she felt like that she needed to go was to the house of the Lord and Jesus was watching the tithe payers and the contributors to the offertory and here she come just left the cemetery and all she dropped in were just two little mites she came with two mites but you hear me preacher when she left Church that way she left broke she left broke brother Kilgore me that's not broken yet but I want them broken I just can't afford to leave because the time I don't want to be the same old Florida over my bent brother Kenny you I was that one lo she I was that lost kind I was that prodigal son oh I guess a thousand other preachers can stand and claim that honor - from your sermon but I don't want to leave tonight when the service is over and not be broken McMahon right man we're going to see her again baby oh what a happy glad day that would be brother-sister Trapani [name redacted] he lost his daddy brother Arnold catch would you break a loaf of bread around in for me I'll pay the laundry bill on the carpet brother sister Trapani I don't mean to break your heart but we're going to get through this thing brothers justice you make maybe the next birthday will be celebrated on the streets of gold you talking about a birthday cake right me brett-brett me brandy when I leave my notes on the desk item to our knees please to our knees so will you go with me now will you forgive now will you reach with me now will you
suffer with me now will you give it your all now will you go with me now will you reach with me now will you let me be Lord of all now will you go all now will you go old now will you love one another now will you reach for one another and restore one another now will you forgive one another now will you try to save one another now will you pour it all out will you throw it all down will you give it all to me let me be your Lord because I'm on top of everything give it all give it all give it all
Scripture references as spoken: Luke 24; Joel 2:17; Matthew 14:19; Matthew 15:36; Matthew 26:26; Psalm 51:7; John 2:19.