A Generation Of Seekers - Confessions From An Aging Preacher

I have to say thank you to brother Cox and they made me cry what you're at home it's what you really are amen I want to make certain thank you that I preface my remarks today by saying that the opinions expressed in this message do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the upci the aljc b-o-t-t -p-o-a -p-o-b-c are Gina Dean and I want to say further that if you're not here today I'm not preaching to you and I know this is a big platform but I don't have any subliminal messages to get to anybody I come to Bott every year to get a good spiritual bath and I always go home much cleaner in my spirit now I don't plan on saying anything

controversial but I do have your attention now so you better not go to sleep or take a long bathroom break because you might miss it I want to say something it's such an honor to be asked to speak in this pulpit I guess what did you call it a privilege and a pressure I don't even know how that goes together how can it be a privilege if it's a pressure but at any rate all of you guys out there that aspire to speak here or at any other big meeting as far as that goes unless you can preach with a passion and fiery anointing of Anthony Mangan who has more cribs than you have corn and unless you can preach with the unmatched intellect and word Smith Mike Williams or unless you can preach with the power the passion and the Precision backed up with the powerful prevailing punctuating prayer like Wayne Huntley I can't believe you didn't get that unless you have the Deep revelatory inside of a Jeff Arnold or the blatant honesty and transparency of Terry shock and unless you have 70 years of experience of preaching people out of hell and into the altar like Queen Vesta Mangan he preached Me Out of Hell one night literally I never did get over that and I'm thankful for it well if you can't do all of that all I can say if you want to get up here you're crazy speaking between Terry shock and Vesta Ming and make me feel like a slice of baloney between two pieces of wheat bread so I know what you're thinking about right now what are you doing up there well that's a good question it's a real good question I think I found the answer in one of Solomon's proverbs he said money answereth all things and the fine people I pastored have given liberally and generously to every offering in our movement and as we found out Pastor shock a man's gift makes room for himself and he wasn't talking about whether or not you could sing good it's a bribe brother and I will tell you that I've found giving will get you some nice perks I'm not known for turning any of them down but I'm not sure I consider speaking here today at Burke notwithstanding even though we have as a church given with much joy I don't know if God thinks we've given a lot or not because he kind of uses a different way of measuring our giving he tends to look at what we have left over doesn't he foreign Church planner in our state by the name of Henry Ferrara he is a painter he started a church in Abita Springs and told me last year that his congregation is probably large enough now to support him but he said if I went full time we couldn't give to missions so I'm going to keep working and so you thought I was a good Giver I was at a banquet for the top givers at General Conference and I was sitting by a pastor from Mississippi and I was enjoying my conversation with him and I

suppose that he was there because he was in the top per capita giving so in my suit coat pocket I had a little slip of paper that had listed the top 20 givers and and without him knowing what I was doing I pulled it out and checked it oops I asked him how many he had in his congregation he said around a hundred and I pulled out my phone and did a little calculation and if we even came close to comparing what his church gave per capita pobc would have given well over a million dollars so I'm not sure about all of that I don't know how all that's going to work out I just know I'm glad that I can give and that I have a heart that wants to look Beyond The Four Walls of our church and the city limit signs of our city and today's message is not about missions last year during because of the times with the exception of the first night I was here for brother mangan's message brother cook Stan cook came over and he said are you not feeling well and I said I'm I'm feeling all right I don't need to be here I need to be home with my dad dad was on his Deathbed I got up the next morning and drove to Bentonville and so I was able due to the benevolence of Mangan shocking company me and my dad Sat by his bedside to the hospital bed in his room and we watched much of because the times on my iPad here he was slightly inclined on the hospital bed that hospice had set up and he and Mom's little bedroom Mike Williams was preaching last year on Wednesday night dad asked me Jerry how did that man get so smart I don't have a clue later when brother Mangan was preaching or running one of the services Pastor Mangan I still remember my dad holding up two fingers and with a voice that could be heard more on the other side than on this side he said Jerry can you believe that man called me two times prayed for me two times he said again and held up those fingers he said with all those people he has to Pastor that big church and this big meeting he called me two times and he said he called your mom and prayed for her over the phone what Dad would find out before we passed that he wasn't only calling Dad mommy was calling me and my other brothers other members of the family and this is not preliminary remarks I'm preaching right now I get a little confused by all this ranching and shepherding stuff ranchers usually raise cows and I'm not interested in a herb as Jesus never talked about a Rancher these great churches were built by Shepherds and I probably made some of you mad when I said that but I would suggest to you that before you try ranching you ought to learn how to be a shepherd and that means you better put your hand on some people's lives and especially when they're hurting because you can't delegate get delegate everything out in this world a few weeks after that my father passed with me and Johnny and Mark and Dan and mother and other family members gathered around this bed just like he would have loved it we respected dad so much we wouldn't let a backhoe bury him we covered him up ourselves on that cold winter day and we sang when the redeemed are gathering in you see Daddy was a 100 disabled War veteran but we had strict orders don't play Taps at my funeral play Reveille we laid the rest that cold day perhaps the most kingdom-minded man I've ever known like that patriarch Jacob dad was weary after 92 years he had the opportunity to bless all of

his kids in nearly all of his grandkids before he passed he called for the hospice bed to be brought to the house and like Jacob of old he gathered his feet up into the bed and he passed on this particular night just around New Year last year we had communion at Dad's house I said dad you want to do communion he said yeah I didn't know they had just done it a few days before so Johnny and Deb and their kids and my son Ryan and charity we were there and we all knelt down in front of dad and asked him to bless us I didn't know then his life would end in just a few short weeks We buried Daddy on Thursday and on Saturday We buried another of the most kingdom-minded men I ever knew it was a major influencer in my life brother James Kilgore the church he led for so long Life Tabernacle paved the way and showed us how to do it 30 plus years ago 1500 strong and a church that was given three hundred thousand dollars a year to missions and a man who died without a retirement kingdom-minded and I will mention both later in my message today my father moved into the assisted living home he soon found out the administrator was a backslider and Shane told me himself how that Dad wrote his little scooter down into his room and said Shane God told me to pray for you today he said well Mr Dino when I get time I'll I'll come by your room he said no God told me today so that now when I called Dad he said well oh Shane was laying in the floor talking in tongues today I want to read you something if you'll indulge me from Ecclesiastes 12 verse 1 through 7. this is this is the backslid preacher when he wrote his book after he had messed his life all up and he's telling everybody else how to get it done now but he's bemoaning his old age and I'm going to read this in the New Living Translation because it makes a whole lot more sense that's what brother Terry shock said right some things in here don't make sense don't let the excitement of Youth cause you to forget your creator honor him in your youth before you grow old and say life is not pleasant anymore remember him before the light of the sun moon stars is dim to your old eyes some of you longtimers can jump in and say Amen anytime you want rain clouds continue to darken your Sky remember him before your legs the guards of your house start to tremble and for your shoulders the strong men stoop remember him before your teeth your few remaining servants stop grinding before your eyes the women Looking Through the Windows see dimly remember him before the door to Life's opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades now you rise at the first chirping of the birds can I get a witness and then all their sounds grow faint remember him before you become fearful of falling and worry about danger in the streets before your hair turns white like an almond tree In Bloom and you drag along without energy like a dying grasshopper and the Caper Berry I could put in parentheses there and give you a name of a prescription drug but I'm not going to do that and the Caper Berry no longer inspires sexual desire I just sent 500 young men into depression right there

remember him before you near the grave your Everlasting home when the mourners will weep at your funeral yes remember your creator now when you're young before the silver Court of Life snaps and the Golden Bowl is broken the seventh verse said for then the dust will return to Earth and the spirit will return to God who gave it now I call this today confessions of an aging preacher not an old preacher an aging preacher although I have had a few frightening experiences in the last year I am learning some things there's not a lot I've really enjoyed about getting old you know you can only pull so many white eyebrows out until you have no eyebrows left I rightly named this the confessions you get old it's like you use your arms more to get up than your legs and you never get up without having to pull up your britches am I right and then they come out with these britches you can't even pull up how are we supposed to navigate in that kind of world and another thing about getting old we still have to polish our shoes you didn't get that either did you I went to the nursing home this last year to be in a at a birthday party of a man in churches and nursing would turn 90 years old and so they have this little section roped off for the guests to the party and I'm sitting here and here comes this lady riding up in her motorized wheelchair she goes past the barricade rose up to me sticks her hand out and introduces herself to me I said I'm I'm Jerry Dean pleased to meet you she said I've been living here for eight years and I want to tell you you're going to love it here that's a true story why is that so funny that as you age I would trust each of us and all of us will consider what the wise man said the majority consensus of both the rabbis and the Christian theologians is that David wrote Psalm 24. to be sung on the occasion of returning the ark from the house of Obed Edom back to Jerusalem Psalm 24 and 3 says who shall Ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place he that hath Clean Hands and a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity and are sworn deceitfully shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the god of his salvation this is the generation of them that seek him that seek thy face o Jacob now I've got this Clean Hands figured out I think but I'm worried about this Pure Heart and I want that blessing he shall receive the blessing of the Lord I want that blessing Solomon in this same book bemoans The fact that he said Folly is set in great dignity in chapter 10 verse 6 he said the rich sit in low place and I've seen servants upon horses and princes walking as servants upon the Earth found it interesting that only one generation away from a man being hidden away as a Shepherd boy forgotten and unknown and David himself

called himself the servant that God took from the Sheep folks if there was ever a servant who started writing like a prince it was David but Solomon who grew up with so much given to him and reign in a kingdom that never knew War that knew only peace well look what that brought him thank God Paul went to prison we might have half of the Epistles that we read but for a man who grew up with a silver spoon in his life he didn't understand it was it was Folly to him and I I think I understand what he is saying but I want us as a generation to realize that David's choice of a man who's going to get the blessing was Jacob the heel grabber the man who went after it who decided I got to have more than my intellect and my Ingenuity and my cunning ways I've got to have something from God my brother's coming after me with 400 servants and they weren't coming to have a birthday party they were coming with vengeance in their mind and so with that in mind he crosses the brook and he gets hold of a man the Bible called him a man said he wrestled with a man in Jacob 32 and 24. I noted that in the English Standard Version man is capitalized it's the uppercase because we understand it was not just a man that he was wrestling with come to this place where you realize you don't have enough sense and you can't have enough planning meetings and you can't have enough create recreating this and that that you need the blessing and if you have the blessing you don't need anything else when you have God's favor you don't need anything else you don't need everybody to like you if God likes you Joseph didn't need everybody to like him he only needed one man to like him and that's the king now we all want the favor of our Brethren but there may come a time in our life when we're going to have to say thy kingdom come and thy will be done somebody clap your hands to the Lord right now is there anybody here that wants the blessing what are we willing to do to get it Clean Hands and a pure heart I think I got that Clean Hands pretty much figured out you know you just you quit lying you don't steal you don't kill anybody you don't you don't fell a with Jack Daniels you just you know that's Clean Hands that's the things we can see it's that business in here that that brother Terry shot was talking about a moment ago it worries me especially since the Prophet Jeremiah said the heart is desperately wicked and who can know it I want to see God do you want to see God well in one sound bite Jesus said blessed are the pure in heart because I wonder what drives me I wonder what my motives are I wonder why I want to give I wonder why I want to build Bible schools around the world we have a new goal we announced it Sunday morning to the church I like the British Empire I don't want the sun to go down on a training center somewhere in the world that the Pentecostals of Bossier have funded that's my heartbeat but why am I wanting to do that is it really for his kingdom or do I like the perks that come from this so I searched my heart I look in my heart I look deep inside and I know I need God's help in order to do this now you're going to misunderstand a thing or two that I say here before I get through with this in just a little bit but please understand where I came from please understand the men who shaped my life I'm thinking of my friend Mike Williams who told me when his daddy walked out of the bedroom in the morning he came out with his shirt and tone marching into his office headed to the prayer room heading to get on his knees before God men that shaped my life men like JT Pugh I'm not going to live in the past

forever today but we need to get a hold of something here I'm preaching about a pure heart we need a generation of seekers if you're going to seek him if you want to get up on that Hill you better have clean hands and you better have a pure heart you may get your blessing Jacob you may get your blessing but there's going to come a time when you're going to need more than your daddy's blessing you're going to need God's help Give the Lord a hand clap right now would you do that come on let's do better than that just a moment the spirit of the Lord is going to talk to us it's going to move us does anybody here want that blessing I got to believe you know the Bible said David heard they came and told him the Lord is Blessing everything open Edom has he's got the Blessed on his life and the King said hey I got to get that blessing here in Jerusalem I need it in my family I need it in my home I need it here let's go get it and so they went on a fast didn't they they Sanctified themselves didn't they that's why he's saying who's going to get the blessing of the Lord he's got Clean Hands he's got a pure heart he has not lifted up his soul under vanity nor sworn deceitful he shall receive the blessing of the Lord I was reading on Twitter I don't do Facebook either I got a problem at home I got to deal with because some Facebook post I want to challenge you to do what I challenged our church to do go home and get on your Facebook and delete anything and everything that doesn't glorify God now bend over and let you kick me in a seat of britches all right I don't really care what you're eating now I don't care about your new purse I do care about your grandkids because I can't get on that I'll be preaching to myself they don't glorify God we ought to get rid of it if it doesn't exalt the name of Jesus we ought to get rid of it well I didn't get a whole lot of response from that but that's okay whatever made us think everybody in the world wants to know what we're having for supper how do you know I'm not on a fast I didn't have that in my notes but it felt real good saying it I accidentally retweeted like when I first got on Twitter somebody said something nice about me and I retweeted a couple accidentally I promise I'm texting my son Ron I said how do I have to be the tweet I'll show you how some of you need to find out brother shock said it you didn't get mad at him so I'm somebody posted a tweet about a letter to the editor of Newsweek magazine apparently I didn't read the original article but the article was to discredit the infallibility the historical record and all that of the Bible did anybody else read that somebody tweeted and so I read this article it was it took me about 15 minutes and I was scanning it because I have ADD don't send me a long email yeah I grew up with OCD my wife has diagnosed me with ADD so that pretty much guarantees I'll never be a TFT she said ask your doctor about add can he give you some medicine so I did Dr Wilson looked at me and he said no I said why not he said we ain't tested it on people your age I've been getting hit up on the side of the head all year long by this stuff so I started reading this brilliant response now I don't remember who wrote it but it was a brilliant response and and

the Tweet said that Newsweek actually reprinted this beautiful response well this guy is throwing things out about the Bible you know like codex 3 and Papyrus and bull rushes and clay tablets and I'm like oh God I'm dumb no seriously I'm like I gotta go back to school I got to do like brother colfarb I got to be a Perpetual student how am I ever going to get anything done for God well the Lord helped me a little bit he reminded me of the verse in Acts 4 and 13. when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived they were unlearned and ignorant men they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus hey when you got a blind man I mean a lame man standing beside you jumping up and down they don't care if you know how many codexes there were out there you just got a man saying I don't know all I know is I've been laying at the gate all my life well how'd you get that we've been with Jesus we've been with Jesus we're a generation of seekers Hallelujah I'll tell you what happens when you've been with Jesus you stand before The Supreme Court of your nation and they say don't speak in that name you say oh we don't obey God or man yeah when you've been with Jesus they give you your last meal and you're waiting to get your head rolled the next morning and you decide hey I might well go to sleep I'll be in glory tomorrow that's what happens when you've been with Jesus when when you've been with Jesus they don't frighten you with the words and they don't care what you look like or what you got going it don't matter anymore you've been with the Lord come here Carlton Carlton a neighboring Pastor who's a friend a dear friend of ours from Bossier City he he's a church planner he started a new church and I'm going to embarrass him here he started a new church in in Stockwell oh he started in Starbucks we've been friends for almost as long as I've been in Bossier and he's he was assembly God preacher he's got a he's got an independent church now in Stockwell Elementary in their meeting I think they have around 100 people he Wheels into my office one day about a year ago and he said do you have five minutes I said sure we gotta talk I said what's going on he said I'm struggling what are you struggling with I'm struggling with something I've been believing all my life really what the godhead what what's your problem with your godhead he's this word persons I don't get it it's not in the Bible is it I'm like no I try to tell you that years ago whoa so I gave him a book he wanted some material I gave him Bill Davis's book the one that's made simple which is an incredible little book and he texts me about about three days later and he said I need an appointment with you I need an appointment with you he said I'm ready to be baptized in the name of Jesus hey you know what he will tell you that he considers the day he was baptized in Jesus name the greatest day of his life he texted me yesterday and said I'm baptizing how many you baptizing Sunday he's baptized in four in the name of Jesus that's the blessing I won't and while he's sitting in the baptistry brother Shannon brother Ryan are there and and we're waiting on Ryan to go get his camera and he's sitting in the baptistry and the tears are rolling down his face he said when I get out of my car I feel the holy ghost in the parking lot and he said I know why he said I know why it's your Apostolic lifestyle Brethren hold on

I want the bless him and I gotta have pure hands Clean Hands and I gotta have a pure heart I've decided if if God gives me an advanced notice like my brother my dad I'm gonna preach my own funeral well I can do that I can we can get a video and they can edit it and put a little put a little cute background music in there and do the whole thing because we I know how you whitewash the tombs my brother owns a funeral home he said he's never buried a sinner that's true everybody goes to heaven when you die you know I might like Johnny talk Johnny and my brothers that'd be cool does he get up there and snot around cry he'd tell you all the funny things that happened he'd be neat you know might let Ryan say something I don't want my good looking son-in-law talking that's just a joke I don't want my wife talking she knows too much Sheena got up there and got to being honest you wouldn't be called me Bishop you'd just be called him old Jerry she knows about that heart stuff see she hears when you're fussing at home you know I surprised myself sometime when I get that deadly poison in my tongue my criticism my cynicism that comes out as you get older that stuff worries me because I don't see it as being a pure heart and I try to get a grip on it and I try to get a handle on it and sometimes some of you do something ignorant and I gotta go pray through again you know I read one time that if you knew everything your friend said about you you wouldn't have any friends somebody gets up at a conference and says something everybody else is thinking we throw them under the bus if you're not here I'm not preaching to you Paul knew he was departure was at hand he just summed it up in one little sound bite didn't he I fought a good fight I finished my course I just figured out a few years ago I don't need to be like anybody else I don't know what God's called you to do I just got to finish my course and we're at that stage Johnny unless we live to be 124 we're way past halfway in our life we're on that downhill slope I know it and this stuff starts sinking in when you realize you're fixing to stand before the Judgment seat of Christ and he's going to judge not just what you said but the thoughts in your heart and God knows what our motives are and he knows why we want to build a bigger church is it to extend his kingdom is it to exalt the name of Jesus what is our motive all about when somebody shout hallelujah right now you know I think I think if if we as a fellowship and I know we have other groups here but you jump on board with me a minute all right if we as a fellowship would get our hearts pure and start seeking after God you know and your days are numbered brother Shannon shared this I said can I use that because of the times last Sunday the Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans the Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans the Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans the Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans the Germans drink a lot of beer and eat a lot of sausage and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans conclusion if you speak English that's apparently what kills you young men please I don't know if I have any influence in your life I don't have a voice in your

life but I wish you'd listen to Old backslid preacher for a minute he said you better remember him in the days of thy youth when you've got energy when you've got strength when your shoulders are not stupid when you stand up without grabbing a hold of something you better get it in your heart and you better get a pure heart and you better get your eyes on his kingdom and if we have his kingdom clap your hands to Jesus I'm finishing up I want to know him yeah that's how Paul summed it up I want to know him blessed are the pure in heart for they shall seek God I want to see that lamb I want to see that lion that Marsh into a lamb I want to be there do you want to be there do you want to be there when they start singing Worthy is the Lamb I gotta promise you there's only one pulpit in that place there's only one Throne there and everybody else is singing in unison Worthy is the Lamb I read that verse the other day and it was with a Godly envy that I envied the writer John who said we have seen him with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled I enmed him The Miracle Worker the Transformer of Lies the Healer of leprosy the one who opened the blinded eyes and walked on the water and turned the water into wine I want to see him I want to see him I want to see him I thank God for his blood today without it I wouldn't have had a chance neither would you have had a chance but I also want his Blessing in my life because I want my life to count for something you know I was thinking I I got so many ignorant weaknesses it's just crazy just crazy some of you guys just make me feel so dumb my wife would call that false humility and there's a little touch of it in there you know I've often said I'm really not I'm kind of for limited terms and I've been over Men's Ministry for a quarter of a century I guess I was thinking 25-year limited term when the truth is I kind of enjoy the perks hey I got a free I got a reserve parking place account meeting brother that's worth something in Louisiana wish you could have known brother Kilgore if you're too young to have not had the chance to cross his path I'm sorry for you these are the men who made us what we are I had the unique privilege Johnny and I both have attending Texas Bible College when he was the president I can't imagine the responsibility of the job the hours the time that that precious man of God had to put in we used to have a break right before the chapel service and we'd all go into Chapel right straight from the ping pong tables and we'd file in and sit down and brother Kilgore just walk up to the pulpit and he'd start singing oh love love God how rich and pure you get these little prickly hairs you know these little Goosebumps coming up on you the next thing you know you're wiping away the tears I doubt brother Kilgore ever really understood anything about a planning meeting or a creative team and I don't know what he had and didn't have I just know he had a church that was so strong that many if not most of us would envy that size of a church today who he had born every year in January the whole month was given to Revival for year after year after year you know it wasn't it wasn't just it's just like when he when he got up there and he started singing here's here's what it was you just knew you knew he'd been with Jesus

that's it you couldn't help it and that's why the Goosebumps and the feeling and and all of that came and I text Brother Gurley this morning and asked him if he could tell me how many preachers came out from under his ministry and he said 150 and I'm not against planning meetings and God knows I need to have more but guys make sure you have more prayer meetings than you have planning meetings when it takes you four hours to program your lights and you pray 10 minutes for God's blessing you're not trying to impress God you're trying to impress men let me tell you friend he wakes up every morning to a universe that's still growing you're not going to impress him with your smart lights you might impress your buddies but you're not impressing God but I'll tell you what to impress God is when you become a Jacob and you say I want that blessing I want that blessing I want that blessing I I'm not good enough anymore God I trick I tricked my brother out of the birthright I tricked my daddy out of the blessing but I'm in trouble you're going to be in trouble one day won't you be like oh he has who paid off against the advice of the old Prophet didn't he he paid off the king of Assyria to protect him from his enemies a contrary to everything about him he took the money out of the church to do it and he went over there to thank him and the Bible said he saw an altar over there he took the pattern of it and the fashion of it he sent it back to Urijah the high priest and if he had been a priest worth his salt he'd have threw it in the fireplace by the time the king got home he had the new altar there I don't have time to read the verses but it's there he said take that old Brazen altar that old altar that's seen the blood of millions of lambs put it over on the North side we're going to kind of stick it out of the way and you bring that new altar in here let's set it up and I said don't get rid of the old altar it'll be for me to inquire of the Lord because I may face something someday this new altar won't handle and I'm going to get out of their lights here but I he got through building his new altar in the Bible said he took that lever it was so big the Bible called it a sea he took it off those bronze Bulls and he built the pavement of stones he made it easily accessible to all the people yeah he lowered the standard that's usually what happens and we we probably at home in Bossier we probably do baptize some people too quickly before they bring forth any fruit meet for repentance we baptize one dude and I don't need first time at church and he crawled up out of the Baptist and said well I knew that wasn't going to do any good I think he's a drug addict he thought he's going to get high foreign didn't know we found out in the book of Hebrews God said you be sure Moses you build it just like I tell you because there's something like it in heaven it's a shadow of something to have you go ahead you go ahead and go to your little cute Church conference and you figure out how you're going to have these celebration Sundays and you're going to that's that's what happens you get rid of that a first Altar and the next thing you're lowering down that labor of baptism you didn't learn that out of the pattern there are no delayed baptisms in the Bible yeah but it might get this one here and that one there now I'm thinking of my old dad when they I they facetimed him on my iPad and he's laying there on that bed he can hardly talk he's laying on that bed and I'm they're saying hey Gramps how you doing he was grandkids and kids and how you doing we don't want to say all right my old dad he's raising that little hand said preach Acts 2 38. preach Acts 2 38.

my daddy had several scars in his body three of them he took home from World War II the last one was a shell he took three days before the war in Europe ended it blew out his ankle the sniper caught him as he dove into a ditch from a barn sniper was hid up in a barn so my dad walked with a limp kind of like old Jacob but he had another scar you couldn't see it handicapped him he drove him to his knees he got it at a brush Arbor meeting when he kept a vow to God if you'll let me live drove him to his knees at five o'clock every morning called on God and that little garage closet pulled out of the hand of God what we now call the gift of faith he wouldn't have called it anything but God gave me a gift to lay hands on people I never see the Holy Ghost two weeks before he died he said Jerry I I lost count of how many people I baptized and so I'm speaking in tongues under the water he didn't call him to do nothing he just laid his little two fingers on their head and he starts peeking in tongues well that won't get you much will it we'll come up here and look at this Bible did this in three Bibles that's that's the people he baptized in Jesus name the last decade of his life it's 892. I think some of you would take that wouldn't you I'm out of time staying with me he used to he used to just aggravate me to death he'd get up and he never finished a sermon he wrote his sermons out in the spiral notebook he never finished he didn't believe in preaching over 30 minutes so he'd be active me today he'd get up and get people laughing for 20 minutes and tell jokes and funny and they'd all Hoot and Holler and carry on talk about what a great message he was and he had to have an altar calling two or three to get the Holy Ghost and he'd take them back and baptize him and I'm like this ain't right so I went up there and I got on my knees in front of him about a year or two ago I don't know how long ago and I said Daddy give me that gift give me that gift Daddy I walk when I got my car to go home I'm thinking well I wonder if I got that gift and the Holy Ghost spoke to me and said yeah you want it the cheap way don't you son oh love of God God how rich and pure