Sunday Evening Worship Service

All right, I I am going to share something with you tonight and uh I'm I just going to see what the Lord will do with this. I want to go to Revelation chapter 17. Years and years ago, I used this title for a thought and and I mean years ago, I think it was 2003. And God brought this back to me. And I'm going to share a couple of things with you tonight. It's called the crushing weight of eternity. That's a Awtoer term. I've read I think all of his books. And in one of those books in just one line, he used that. He used that phrase, the crushing weight of eternity. And when you think about eternity, it is it is a crushing weight, isn't it? that you think we're living our lives now to spend an eternity somewhere. We're going to spend an eternity and I want to live without crushing weight in my life. But in the book of Revelation chapter 17 verse1 there came one of the seven angels which had seven vows and talked with me saying unto me come hither and I will show unto thee the judgment of the great that siteth upon many waters with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and 10 horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold, precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness upon her for uh of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. Watch this. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus Christ. And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. I don't know if y'all knew Charlie Mahaney up here. Brother Charles Mahaney was an icon and had ministered to us. We got to be good friends. I was sitting at my desk one day and he called me. He called everybody ignorant. And he's like, "Hey, ignorant. What you doing?" I said, "Well, I'm sitting here at my desk." He said, "Where's your Bible?" us. It's right here on my desk. Open your Bible. Turn to Revelation 17. So, I opened my Bible and we read this verse together over the phone. He said, "Dean, I want you to look at that last verse where John said, he wondered with great admiration." He said, "What does that mean?" I said, "Well, I don't know. You called me. He didn't tell me what he meant, but he hung up the phone for before he hung up the phone. He said, "This woman killed John's brother. She killed the saints. They beheaded James. These people were martyrs, and she's drunk on the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. But when John saw her, he wondered with great admiration. And I thought, what does that mean? She's all decked out. She's got on all these pearls, costly array, golden pearls, gold, all of this stuff. And the bottom line is I I did a word study on that word admiration. And the word means admiration. This great apostle John The only living apostle by this time who wrote the book of Revelation who started following Jesus as a young teenage boy is looking at this Babylon, this harlot church. And even John admired this woman. When I read that, I thought about the world. Babylon is the top of the world in the Bible. There's a book called Intoxicated with Babylon. Every apostolic ought to read that book even though the writer was not apostolic. Half of our church, I think, read that book years ago. Babylon is the type of the world. Jesus said that unequivocally you cannot love the world and love the father. If any man love the world, >> the love of the father is not in him. And yet this harlot, this this woman arrayed in purple and scarlet. When John saw her, he was taken back and he wondered with great he marveled with great admiration. And the next verse, if you read the next verse, God said, "Wherefore did thou marvel? There is an allure and a pull. >> I already told you I I I frequent Starbucks too much. I ought to buy some stock in that company. And I didn't know what what that emblem was on the Starbucks cups until I asked Siri. And it comes out of the odyssey of Homer. I could have asked some of these smart guys around here. You remember the story where they the captain wanted to go by this island where these women could sing these alluring songs and they' lure the ship over to the island and crash on the rocks and they'd be killed. But he wanted to hear it. He wanted to hear it. And he he had his men tie him to the mass of that ship. And so that's the emblem. That's where that story comes from. Starbucks cup. So you'll go home a blessed person having known that tonight. There is an allure from the world. >> It's what the writer of Hebrews call the pleasures of sin for a season. >> It's attractive. Oh God, >> we're different. >> We don't blend in anymore. I don't even know what's going on in our world. >> I don't think anybody understands what the word modesty means. >> I mean, I see ladies going into Walmart with what used to be called women's hoes, and jamas. Sometimes I'm just glad to have on pajamas. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? >> There's a book called The Practicing of Evil. And in the book, the man tells the story of how Hollywood planned in little offices to perpetrate immorality across the airwaves on television. They carefully calculated and planned a sitcom where people would laugh when the first two men would kiss. They planned it. They knew there would be an uproar. But they decided, it's in the book, you can read it. They decided we just keep doing it. And after a while, it won't be a big deal anymore. And it happened in our world. There was a day when nobody broadcasting the news would have used a slang term, much less a curse word. >> And our world marched into that Babylonious harlot world. >> And I don't want to be attracted to that. >> I got too many miles behind me. I'm going to heaven. >> Hallelujah. >> Heaven. Heaven is not my goal. Heaven is my destiny. >> My goal is to be a kingdom builder while I'm here on this earth. But heaven is my destiny. I'm going to heaven. And even you and I with the church supporting us and standing behind us must admit there is an allure. >> You wondered and we are we are battle down. We're we're hindered. Lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. >> We're there. And boy, it's not easy to know what to lay down. And we all carry around a lot of baggage. Conference that year was in Columbus, Ohio, and general conference. We we we I was on the missions board. And so I was there for seven days. and you dress up and so you got a lot of clothes, you know, you got a lot of luggage and and Gan and I went and got off the airport and I I rented one of those little carts, you know, one of those little three-wheel carts and loaded up our luggage and it was full. We had even some luggage probably hanging on our shoulder. Well, there was you had to go up a floor to get to uh a taxi or someone to take you to the hotel and there was an escalator escalator, but I'm not taking the escalator with this buggy. So, we go to the elevator and we're standing here waiting on the elevator and so help me. An older gentleman walks up behind us and he says, "I don't take the escalator." He said, "Last time I took the escalator, I had an accident." And I said, "Will you ride with us? We're sitting here waiting on the elevator and the elevator don't come." And I kept looking at the escalator and I'm like, "Well, I don't know what to do here." So, we decided we're we're going to have to take the escalator up. So, I'm loaded down full of luggage with this cart. And there's a law called the law of leverage. I got going up pretty good, but I I had to lift the back of that card up. Okay. And it was heavy. And I'm starting to think I might be in trouble. And then I remembered, you know, when you get off of an elevator escalator, there's a little bump there. And I'm thinking, "Oh my god, I hope this ain't going to hang up on." And my first thought was, "I don't I hope nobody's behind me." And I turned around and about four stairs down, four steps down was that gentleman. And I'm saying, "Oh, God, my wife was ahead of me. Would you believe I hung up on that little loop and the escalator don't stop? I finally had to shove that cart with all of our luggage and pushed it forward and all the luggage fell off. I fell on top of the cart. The old man fell on top of me and I look up and my wife is hightailing it down the sidewalk. I'm like, "You got to help me somehow." We're I you I'm telling you that story for a reason because we get we get so heavy weighted. >> I I mentioned the storage the storage uh rooms this morning. All these places where people are written storage and we get weigh it down with the cares of this life. Jesus said be careful about drunkenness and be careful about surfacing and be careful about the cares of this life. >> And we got to live >> and we want to be blessed and we understand all of that. But in the middle of all of this, we cannot afford to be lured into the trap of this Babylon that we live in. >> Amen. >> Amen. >> Amen. >> I've often said, I don't believe I hope we're not the Leodysian church who was neither lukewarm, who was neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm. But the Bible said they were rich and increased with goods. And I sometimes wonder, I I don't think we're that church, hopefully, but we may be first cousins, >> am I right? >> And what we're here to do is extend the kingdom of God. We we don't want to get so bottled up with the cares of this life and what's going on around us that we lose sight of the most important thing. We've got to live under the crushing weight of eternity and realize heaven and earth will melt with a fervent heat. And Peter said, "I saw a new heaven and I saw a new earth." And you and I, old and young alike, need to realize that we've got to keep that in the back of our mind day and night. We cannot sleep the sleep of death. And we cannot let Babylon, the world, lure us. >> Somebody shout, "Amen." >> I want you to clap your hands to the Lord right now. I wanted to show you a little video and I preached this morning about miracles in the mundane because God wants to elevate not just the ministry. God will elevate the ministry, but God wants to elevate the ministry of the laymen and lay women in the church. We We've got to have all hands on deck. If we're going to have the kind of revival God wants us to have and God's going to give America, we've got to have everybody with their hands in the harvest. And we all have unique gifts and special talents. You may be a carpenter. You may be a builder. You may be a plumber. We have a plumber in a church that owns his own plumbing business. He's been involved in every church in a day. He's doing one in Mississippi next month. He'll be over all the plumbing. Whatever your talent is, whatever God gifted you with, you need to put your hands in the harvest and be involved in the kingdom because one of these days, nothing else will matter. >> Am I right? And so you can be used of God. And maybe I I just come across this thought that brother Kinsey gave me that we we don't need to be we don't need to feel like we got to work something up or manufacture something. We just have to be conduits. And I was privileged to speak at a times of refreshing meeting in a church. I'd never been there in Matune, Illinois with the Dowies. And and uh I'm preaching. And I had about five points. And one of one of the points that I made in that deal and I was preaching about the miracles that happened in the wilderness. God God just said, "All I needs a few fish and few loaves and and you help me." But sometimes you got to do something you've never done before. If you want something you've never had before, you got to break out of your box. And the church was full. There were a lot of people there. And I'm preaching away and uh all of a sudden I see a couple look to be about 35 years old maybe and they're bringing a little baby. They've got it's the baby can't walk and they're bringing him up and they walked up and they stood right here in front of the pull pit and I felt an urge from the Holy Ghost not to stop that service but rather to go ahead and make a make about five or six, seven more minutes in my message and and make these extra points that I wanted to make. And I kindly asked the little couple if they wouldn't mind. There were the front rows were full. People scooted over and I I I let them sit down. I preached about seven minutes and the Holy Ghost fell in that building. I don't know these people. I didn't know the baby was blind. I didn't know the baby was born from a mother who was addicted to drugs and that's what caused his blindness. I didn't know any of that. This was not their baby. It was a It was the lady's niece and they were trying to adopt that baby. They had taken him in under the foster care program. I didn't know any of that. But all of a sudden, the Holy Ghost fell like it did here tonight. >> And people rushed the altar and there was nothing I could do. It was over. People were praying for other people. And suddenly somebody grabbed me and said, "Brother Dean, Brother Dean, Brother Paul, want you over here or now? Now, now." And I I look up and he he is standing in front of this little boy and the mother and daddy are here and he has a baby toy, a little baby rattle in his hand. And I'm like, all of a sudden, I'm beginning to realize what happened. And I jerked out my phone. It was dawning on me. Something special was going on. I didn't know the baby was blind. And all of a sudden, that little baby is following that baby rattler with his eyes. And he's watching that baby rattler. I have another picture. I didn't give it to media. And he is staring into the face of this lady that was fixing and did adopt him. and he's their boy today. He's staring for the first time into the face of this mother that this lady would come his mother and loved him. Now, here's what I want to tell you. There was nobody to anoint with oil. Nobody laid hands on them. No, no, nobody stretched forth their hand and prayed for him. It was just a miracle that God just stepped in. That's what I was trying to preach this morning. And I I tell you that story to inspire you. We got to hold on because I think if we will lay aside some baggage and some extra luggage and get back to the old quartet I preached about. I think those kind of miracles are going to become common to the North American church. We need something to separate us from this world out here that's claiming to be Christians that are so far from biblical Christianity. We need a God interruption, don't we? [Music] Clap your hands and shout to the Lord. [Applause] I called Pastor Dowy a couple of years after that cuz I was wondering about that little boy. I got a picture. His name's Elijah. I was holding him in my arms and they took a picture of me and little boy, cute as a bug. And I said, I said, "Hey, uh, Brother Shine," I said, "That little boy that was healed," he said, "Oh, yeah, brother Dean." He said, "I'm having a problem with him." And my heart sank. I'm like, "No, I've been showing this video around, you know." He said, "I can't keep him off the platform. [Music] [Applause] >> I'm going to be preaching, Lord willing, up there next year. I can't wait to see that boy." and get another picture with Elijah and talk about what the Lord has done. Oh man, I love that song. There is no telling what God will do if we'll believe. >> There is no telling what God will do if we'll believe. Do you know that song? He'll heal your body. He'll save your soul. He'll touch your mind. He'll make you whole. There is no telling what God will do if we'll believe. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hallelujah. Give the Lord another clap offering. Praise him. Amen. Come on. We're not going to be admiring the world. We're going to just talk about Jesus. Simply Jesus. you uh you never know what God will do with you and through you. And let me tell you, I sound like I've done all this stuff. I ain't done squat. I've taught some Bible studies. I've won a few people to the Lord. I haven't done near what I should have done. And I pastor some of the greatest people in the world. And and when when we went to Boer, we started our missions program and they had already had one conference I think and we made it an annual affair. Our world missions conference is the is the biggest meeting of the year in Boer and we always have it right toward the end of February and it's just an amazing time. We have church planners and global missionaries that come in and it's just a highlight of a year for us. We got flags all over the building. We got stuff going on everywhere. The kids are singing in all their costumes. We make it a big deal. Our kids raised money for months in their Sunday school classes. I think they raised $26,000 this year and gave it to the missionaries when they came to the missions conference. They built an orphanage over in Nigeria. They bought bicycles for preachers over in Uganda. They've helped put a playground on the orphanage in Guatemala. Home International. It's just a big meeting. All right. And it's changed our church >> through the years. Just amazing. And and and we got a committee and they do it all. And I just get up there and have a blast. A few years ago, I was at a funeral and we had a legend in the church that passed away suddenly. And he was just a sweet old man. He uh he loved worship. Uh, brother Sergeant had been in the church. He was there when I got there and he he was on a walker and the Holy Ghost get the moving and he had COPD, you know, and a little heart failure, but man, he wanted to shout. He'd get his walker and come down. We have a little sloping floor like you have. And he he did all right coming downhill, but when he got over here and had to go back upill and he'd he'd get back to his pew, he'd sit down and am I telling the truth, Kelly? and he'd reach into his pocket and pull out that little thing and start puffing it in his mouth. He's out of breath. He can't breathe. Anyway, he passed away. And at the funeral, I I I met a guy that was uh I thought I thought was his granddaughter's wife. It it wasn't. He He This lady was a This lady was a backslider. And I got I got acquainted with him and I said, "Hey, Steve, where do you go to church?" He said, "I really don't go to church. I was raised." He named the church. And I said, "Why don't you come with the family?" and and visit the Pentecostals. And he said, you know, I really need to I did not know he was a full-blown alcoholic. I didn't know he drank every day. He drank a six-pack every night and two cases of beer on Saturday, every weekend. He drank two cases of beer on Saturday and Sunday. I found out later he went to work a little bit buzzed, he said, every morning. He was a chain smoker. His life was a wreck. He had lost his marriage. And uh he he's with this backslider and he comes to church, comes to the altar. I taught him Bible study. Took me eight long months to get that guy into baptistry, but I didn't give up. I kept teaching him. He kept coming to church. While he's before he got the Holy Ghost, he quit smoking. He quit drinking. He got married. Yeah, that's a pretty good deal, isn't it? Even before you get the Holy Ghost. And uh some some of you ought to have heard me talking about brother Sergeant on his walker. What's wrong with some of you? Yeah, I can say all that cuz I ain't home. You know, you can be big, bad, and tough when you're in somebody else's porpit. Anyway, one one one Tuesday after Bible study, I would always ask Steve, "You got any questions?" And he would say, "No, I'm good." But I noticed the notes I was giving him were piling up in his Bible. That let me know he was reading them. Eight months later, he said, "You know what? I want to I need you to baptize me. He said, "You asked me if I had the Holy Ghost and I told you I did." He said, "I don't." He said, "I thought I did because they told me when I accepted the Lord, I received the Holy Ghost." And and he said, "You've shown me scripturally that I don't have it." The next Sunday I baptized. The next Sunday, he fell on his knees in front of the pull pit speaking in tongues. And he's been one of the greatest joys of my life. He got involved in our prison ministries. One, he's baptized over 200 people in prison. And I don't know how many of them have got the Holy Ghost. I don't think they've kept that record, but he's kept a record of every man he prayed through. He's taking a little break right now. He's had some health issues, but he's such a precious guy. Just love the guy to death. But in the prison ministry, we had a couple of ladies were going and they won this lady uh this African-American lady to the Lord. Her name's Verita Rome, and she was a trip. She she was in there because of drugs and drug abuse and all of that went along with it. and they prayed her through in prison and she got out of prison and she went right back into drugs and she went back into prison and they prayed her through again this time she came to church. So we were happy to meet her. Uh one of our men made her some teeth. We had a man that made false teeth. He made her some teeth. Sometimes she wore them, sometimes she didn't. Just I guess it depend on what she's fixing to do. I don't know. We loved her to death. You know what she told me? She told me, she said, "Pastor, I don't want to come to this white honky church." I said, "Why, Verita?" She said, "Cuz they ain't going to like the way I worship." Oh, yeah, we are, too. Well, I hadn't seen it yet. Kelly, you know Rita, she did the hand on the hip thing. She'd jump, she'd shout, she'd bring people to church. She had some grandkids. She was having a halfway race. She was precious. She was amazing. And that first missions conference, she didn't know anything about any of that stuff. that Sunday morning of missions conference, she came in the side door on the west side of the church and I happened to be over there when she came in and she said, "Pastor, look what I got." She came over and she had a sandwich bag full of cash and on the outside she wrote missions. I said, "You got some missions money?" She was working two jobs just to pay her bills. I said, "Sister Rita, how much money you got in that bag?" It was over that it was over $1,200. I said, "Where did you get that money?" She said, "I asked people for it. I told them it was for missions." She was pure delight. We didn't even know what all she did. We had no clue. She gave away everything. She saw somebody in need. She was a jewel. You should go to the prayer room with her. I had to start putting my earbuds in. This was back before I had wireless earbuds. You just put them on your, you know, hook them up to your phone because you couldn't pray with her in there. But she prayed loud and she prayed personal stuff. God, what you going to do with Richard? That was her son. What you going to do with him, God? Now, God, I've told you and told you and told you he's fixing to get another girl pregnant and I'm going to have another baby to raise and he's going to be back in jail and I'm going to be having to bail him out. And I want to know what you're going to do with him, God. Now, you know why I started wearing earbuds, don't you? She wouldn't leave the prayer room until every person had left that prayer room. She's calling on God. She told me one day at church, she said, "My greatest desire, I got to get out of the hood." It wasn't a terrible hood, but it was the hood. She had a little house there. She gave away a refrigerator to a young married couple in the church. She heard they didn't have one, and she had two. And the one she kept, she had to take one of those straps and wrap around the door to keep it closed. We were in Canada on vacation in British Columbia. My wife and I and two other couples. We were in a Dunkin Donuts. Felt the spirit when I said that. It's that Babylon spirit. Anyway, my my daughter called me and I answered the phone and she said, "Dad, I think Sister Verita just got killed in a car wreck." I'm like, "No. Are you sure? I think I'm I think I am, Dad." She had a best friend in the church named Carolyn. I immediately called Carolyn. Carolyn answered the phone. She was squalling and I knew it was true. You know what happened to Berita? She gave everything away. She had slick tires. I didn't know she had slick tires. She had driven over to Dexter, Canada to get her grandkids and bring them home. We would have bought her tires. Gina and I would have bought her tires. I could have told the church, "Hey, Bita needs tires." I'd had enough money to buy her three or four sets of tires before we walked out the building because we loved her that much. probably the most I don't know how to say this inspiring funeral services I've ever been involved in. Brother, at the end of that service, the Holy Ghost moved. I miss her this day. Ever since she died, I've been praying and asking God to send us another Verita Rome. I tell the church that we need another Verita. We need another lady like Verita. and she came in there and and the way she ministered to people and and affected our church so powerfully and came from out of nowhere and came out of prison and made such an impact on our church. It's just a beautiful amazing story. But I at the end of my message, I referenced the fact that Berita Berita had always say I got to get out of the hood over here and I said, "I got news for you ladies and gentlemen. She ain't in the hood no more. Our [Applause] praise team was ready to go and the musician started playing address change notification. I'm moving to a brand new home. And you know, I've thought about it a lot. We would have taken care of her, but we didn't know. I never saw her car. First one to church usually, last one to leave or at least one of the first and one of the last. I didn't. Nobody told me. I didn't know. She didn't wear a seat belt. She rol she had a blowout, rolled her car, car rolled on top of her, took the life of her and one of her grandkids. I didn't know. I could have said, "Forita, please wear your seat belt." I think she would have wore it everywhere. We didn't know, brother. But when she bought into this, she bought into it and she lived under the crushing weight of eternity. Her death impacted me so greatly. And from that day under this, I always want to realize I'm going to have an address change one of these days. >> Do you know the Bible said we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and we're going to give an answer. >> We're going to give an answer. Your pastor's going to speak up for you. We're going to give an answer. I want to live under that crushing weight of eternity. Did they had that picture of Rita up? Did y'all put it up? I I didn't turn around. There's Sister Farita. She's standing in front of the prison where she found Jesus and found the Holy Ghost. And Wanda Carroll and Bobby Posie, the two sweet ladies that prayed her through the Holy Ghost. Wanda Carol died and they had her funeral in another city and here comes Veron here comes Verita from the back of the church and she's carrying a big old tall plant. I think she probably bought it at Walmart. She it was almost time for the funeral. She marched right up to the casket. She put it down in front of the casket. The the the pastor, my friend brother said, "Do you know her?" I said, "Oh yeah, I know her. I know her very well." At the end of that service, he was fixing to turn it over to the funeral director and Verita, this is customary in the black churches in the south. She came up right in front of him and she raised that finger. I want to say something. Poor pastor didn't know what to do. He looked around at me and I said, "Be fine." She said, "You ladies and gentlemen need to listen to me." He said, "This was my angel right here. She found me at the bottom. She didn't just pray me through one time. She prayed me through two times. He said, "This is the woman that saved my life and got me out of drugs and alcohol." She was crying and weeping. And when I tell you, the Holy Ghost fell in that memorial service. When the Holy Ghost fell in that memorial service, people went to their feet clapping their hands. The poor funeral directors in the back of the church didn't have a clue what they were going to do next. They were getting ready to come wheel her out. It wasn't time to wheel Sister Wanda out. We had a Holy Ghost move of the Holy Ghost in that service and the power of the Lord fell. And I just want to tell you, you know, we're we're we're not going to be in the shape. Verita, I didn't know. I didn't know she needed tires. Apostolic First Apostolic Church. We're not going to stand before God and not know. We know we got to get rid of some baggage. We know we need to lay down some weights. We know we need to lay down some sins. We know we're not going to be ignorant. We're not going to be ignorant. God's people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. We got knowledge. I want to go to heaven with you people. I want to go to heaven with you people. That's why I drove up here. I'm 73. I'd be just happy to sit on the couch, my lazy boy with my wife, go to my little farm and write my book. But listen, it's fixing to all be over church. I'm doing this for Jesus. I'm not doing this for accolades or an offering. I'm doing this for Jesus. I'm going to give him my best because someday I want to stand before him and say, "I laid it all on the altar." Everybody stand to your feet and clap your hands to the Lord right now. Come ahead, musicians. [Applause] >> You say, "That's a sad story. That's why I told it. >> I want to move you. I know I'm crazy in the pull pit and I tell a lot of crazy things. My wife's threatening not to go with me anymore. She will if I just won't say one thing. Jesus walked into that temple with a whip he made with his own hands. He turned over their tables. Money went flying everywhere. Those doves, pigeons they were selling went flying. Brother, he disrupted that little scene in the house of God that day, didn't he? And the disciples were looking at him and their mouths were open and their eyes were big and a verse came in their mind. It was from the prophecies of Isaiah that said, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Jesus said, "My house is going to be called a house of prayer." You made it a den of thieves. And I want that to be said about me and my wife and my family when this thing's over. The zeal of the house of God. Got a hold of them. Whatever it takes. I was I went down in the lobby again this afternoon. The Holy Ghost spoke to me. I used to preach all the time about this at home. I want to smell cigarette smoke in the altar. I want to smell alcohol. I want to smell some marijuana even though I don't know what it smells like. Think I might could identify it. We had a big service one night. One of my men brought a man to church with him who was a cocaine addict and he saw her. We took off running, shouting and jumping and he went in the bathroom, laid out a line of clothes and snorted it. came out and told the man that brought him said, "I'm gonna get in here with y'all tonight." He thought we was all high on cocaine. >> I want somebody to think I'm high. >> Y'all don't believe these stories I'm telling you. >> They're pretty much unmbellished. I add a little flavor sometimes. Little spice. Holy Ghost spoke to me today. Can I say what I felt in the spirit? Pastor, God's fixing to bring some people into your church like he's been bringing into ours. First apostolic, you better get ready because they going to mess your life up and they going to work you over. And you going to give them money you didn't even have to give. And you may lose it. But if you do, there'll be somebody else right behind them coming. And they're not going to look like us. And we're having a long time getting some of these people discipled. And I used to worry about what people think of us. And now I don't care anymore. I'm just wondering what Jesus thinks of us. >> I just know he was a friend to sinners. And we're going to be a friend to sinners. Pastor, get ready. Get ready. Get ready, brothers and sisters. God's going to put somebody in your way. You're going to bump into somebody that's a sinner and you're going to bring them to church and they're going to be your baby. And then it's when it's your baby, you don't want nobody talking about your baby. Your kids get on my nerves at my house, but my grandkids, they don't get on my nerves. That's just the way it works. You know what I'm saying? And that's going to happen in the house of God. I felt this in the Holy Ghost today in the lobby and I'm like, God, I don't need to say this, but I'm going to I've already said it. It's done. You need to get ready. If you're ready to embrace what God is ready to do in Knoxville at First Apostolic Church, I want you to get out of your pew right now. And I want you to come to the front of this church and I want you to say, "You know what? I can I'm going to get rid of some luggage. I'm too weighted down. I got all this stuff hanging on me. I've got to left side a few weights and some sins. [Music] And I know there's already some people here that fit that mold. I know that. I know that. That's already some people here that fit that mold. But they're coming. They're coming. They're coming. Call me pastor and tell me the first time one of them prays through gets in that baptistry with his dreadlocks comes back in three weeks and you don't even know who he is when they're gone. That's what happened to me. Every hand in the building's lifted right now. I'm done. Thank you for listening to me all of these services. [Music] Lift those hands to God and make yourself a conduit right now. Say, "God, move through me." [Music] Would you do that right now? All across this building, I want to hear you pray. I want to hear you pray a little louder. I want to hear you sigh and cry. I want to hear you pray. I want to hear you sigh and cry and say, "God, I'm going to be a conduit, Lord. You fill me with your spirit. I don't have to be a professional teacher. I I don't have to know all the ins and outs. I don't I don't have to be qualified. You call me. You'll qualify me. Yeah. Here we go. You better be bold now. God responds to bold prayers. Be bold. Pray a bold prayer right now and say, "God, you put them in my life. I'm going to be the mom. I'm going to be the daddy. I'm going to be the mentor. I'm going to be the disciple maker. I'm going to be the one. [Music] >> Come on. I'm going to live under the crushing weight of eternity. Hallelujah