The Road

you feel like it, keep standing. I'd like to say the first words to my wife who passed away 2023, December the 10th. Honey, if you can hear me, I'm here because of you and the Lord. You know, I'm a kind of funny guy. When when I get happy, I laugh. And when I get really happy, I cry. I think that's kind of real unreal. You know, most people just laugh. But God has been good to me. He's been so good to me. You know, I've traveled many miles and it's 89 years, soon to be 90. But God has been with me because of the prayers of my parents. And after we married in 56, her parents joined in and prayed for us. And I can stand here before you and tell you not one time has he failed. Not one time. You know, there's nobody perfect in this world. And not many folks even try to be perfect. But you know, we live for the Lord. We want to be as close and as perfect as we can. And I think he's honors that.

But this road that we're traveling on, I don't know when you started it, but you know, it's a long, long road, but the pay dirt at the end of that road is why we're traveling that road. That's basically going to be the sermon that I want to preach that my daughter sang a song at camp meeting in Holiness Hill. Brother Sloan has been there. I don't know if Sister Sloan ever been there, but it was a wonderful old old camp meeting. No air conditioning, just open air. We had a wonderful time. baptize people in the Tennessee River. So, it's been a good start on uh my road. I'll tell you later when it started, but as far as serving the Lord, of course, it started when I was born. But God is so good. I want to tell you a little about that song. Now, Brother Robertson might have even sang it because it's an old old song and it wasn't even written by a Christian man. But the song is Long and Winding Road. When I first started traveling to heaven, when I first started traveling for heaven, I could only find one road. One road that led me through the mountains and the valleys. A road most folks would not take. But oh Lord, help me remember the words most folks would not even take. But I am trampling on that journey. And it's a it's something to start, but we got to finish the road. When I made my start to heaven, I could only see one road. It read me through the mountains and the valleys, a road that most folks would not take. That's the first verse. The course is long and winding road. Keep on leading me. I see a sign straight ahead that points me to victory. It's a great road. That road that points you to victory and it will continue pointing you on that way. But we got to work at it. We can't turn around. We got to keep going because that road will turn to gold. And I'll try to I should have brought that little notebook up here. It's printed big enough I could give you exact words to the song. Hold on just a minute. All right. First verse is this. When I made my start for heaven, I could only find one road. A road that led me through the mountains and the valleys. A road most folks would not take. And since I've started traveling on that journey, there's been many, many miles behind me. Miles of sunshine and rain. Miles of smiles and pain. This road's been rough, but I again would choose the same. The course is keep the winding road up ahead. I see a sign pointing straight ahead. I know I must be traveling right because I remember passing Calvary. Although it's dusty and it's old, it's bore the traveler's load. And someday this road will turn to gold. Verse two. There are some times when the rocks hurt my feet, my body burns from the sweat and the heat. My strength completely drained and my face marks the pain. My back is bent from the strain. Oh, I could turn around because the road is still there. But every mountain I'd have climbed I would again have to bear. Oh, I can't turn around. Someone may be using my tracks. I see one more bin in the road and that just might be this road's end. Now, I quoted that by heart probably 50 times and get up here nervous because I've never spoke in a place that's 270,000 ft like this church is. And I mean, that's fantastic. Yeah, man. We started small, but look where it is now. They say old men dream dreams and young men see visions. You got a visionary pastor. He's not old yet, but I dream sometime that God talks to me through my dreams. Amen.

You know there's some people that you know that are just common air people. They're Apostle Peter and Paul. You know some of you think they might have been born under a special star or they are special person. But when God come in contact with pe Peter said Peter follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Can you imagine all the things that Peter went through? He saw God raised people from the dead, feed 5,000 people with just a loaf and two fish. What a God he saw. He followed him. He walked on water with God. That's an ordinary man that that just like us. You know, we're ordinary. I know it's a little bit different now. We drive cars and they used to walk. We fly in airplanes and they still had to ride a donkey or some other way. But you know, they kept serving God. And as great as Peter was, you know, he failed God, but God forgave him. You know, the Lord was talking to his disciples and he said, "Who do men say that I am?" And some of them spoke up and said, "You're John the Baptist. Some says you're this. you're that or you're whoever you are. But he said, "Well, who do you say that I am?" And Peter said, "Thou art Christ, the son of the living God." And oh, oh, God made a promise to him then. And we go to the day of Pentecost when he told him to go to the altar room and to tar for power. That was after Peter had uh failed God. But you know they went to the upper room and they tear it like some of you tear around here now. Suddenly there came a wind from heaven like a rushing man might have even been something like a tornado but it was a rushing mighty wind. It slept through that upper room. And I can tell you that upper room is still standing cuz my wife and I visited it while we made a trip over to Jerusalem. Oh man, what a time they had. started spoking in tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. People were amazed. It was a holiday for the Jews and they was amazed what they were hearing. They were hearing people speak in their own language, language they didn't know. I don't know. I've heard people say when their overseas missionaries come back and said people got the Holy Ghost over there and spoke English. Well, thank God. Can you believe it? That's God. God has no limits. We put limits on oursel. But God has no limits. And we have another apostle Paul. The first we hear of him, he was holding the coats of the people that Steve ste uh that stoned Stephen. The next we hear of he was on the road to Damascus to kill more Christians. He had documents. He had the authority to kill Christians. But God chucked him to the ground, blinded him. That's the God I serve. blinded Paul. And Paul was amazed. He heard a voice in his Hebrew tongue. Why are you kicking against the pricks? It's easy if you don't do that. And to cure his blindness, he was sent to Damascus. They told him what to do to be saved and he became the most written word of the word of God author. He he wrote many of the books but you know when it come he said my time as at hand I'm ready to be lift uh I'm ready to be offered up and many of you know if you don't you'll hear in some of your lessons Paul was a going to be crucified not on the cross but to have his head cut off at the end of their road. They've struck this gold. Can you imagine?

It's worth everything we have to finish this road. My my my what a time it will be when we get over yonder. What a time it will be. You know, I can barely walk. I can barely see. I can barely hear. But when I get to heaven, I'm going to race each one of you. And I'll probably come in first because I'm planning on finishing this road to heaven. It's worth traveling. Folks, don't turn back. Now, one of you, a lot of you probably interested. Well, what about the road that you've traveled, Joel?

Well, let me tell you a little bit about that road. I'd like to hear the people in here a lot. You could tell how you started serving God, when you were born, what you did for a living, how you did in school, the parents, how many children do you have, how many boys, how many girls? You know, you can glean something from everybody if you'll just talk to them. Communicating is the will of God. Oh yes, it is. Communicate with people. But God has been good to me. I was born in 1936 in a small town in Tennessee. It was a company town. Most of you here have never heard of a company town. It was Beimis Bag Company. They owned every house in the town. They owned the YMCA, the banks, the theater. They owned everything. And that's where I was born at home in Beimis, Tennessee. From there, my dad was called to preach. We went to West Tennessee, Dyresburg, and Finley, Tennessee, which he pastored for years and years. And all those times, you know, God would speak to me. And you know, God is persistent. If you don't know it now, he draws you. He talks to you. He You go to church, you hear preaching, you see the move of God, he woos you. He won't give up on you. Not until you're dead. Not until you're dead.

Because there's a in the 20th chapter of Matthew, I think, is a parable that I would like to bring right in the middle of what I'm talking about. It's a parable of the penny. A man had a vineyard that he needed people to work in and he went and hired people. And later in the day, he needed more people. He went and hired more people. Five times, I think he went and hired people. At the end of the day, he paid every one of those the same wage, one cent. And the people had been there all day was a little upset. We've worked all day. But in God's way of thinking, if you're a child, 8 years old, 6 years old, you're going to go to heaven. If you're 80 years old and you start serving God, you're going to go to heaven. Whenever you start serving God, if your road turns to gold, you get the same same prize that I do. you know, life. When we went to the West Tennessee, uh, it ended up being five of us, three boys, two girls, and a little four room house with no indoor plumbing. And but we had a time, you know, the beds, two girls slept in one and we, three boys slept in the other. and you could reach over and touch the bed. My mom and dad had the other bedroom, but we were happy. We didn't have much, you know, back then. Instead of giving offering, people didn't have much money. They called it pounding. They would just bring food in to the pastor. And that we we eat plenty of poundage. But, you know, life changes. people get jobs and I'm thankful that we are better off than we are were 80 years ago. But you know, I went had two people across the street that lived with us and we rented from their mother. We rented that house for $12 a month. And there was two boys, Lewis and Houston, joined the Air Force. And I saw those guys in that uniform. I said, "Man, that's what I want to do." Brother Sloan wanted to go in the Air Force and they didn't speak good to him. He just went and joined the army. But whatever you do when you serve Uncle Sam, you deserve a reward.

Well, as I went along and turned 18, I did join the Air Force. And if I had it to do over again, I would do the same because it was good to me. And I enjoy I met my wife because I was in the Air Force. So you know when your parents praying for you things happen for the good. So you know oh life happens. I joined the air force and went to Buxy Mississippi went through tech school and was transferred to Selma Alabama at Craig Air Force Base. had a whole slew of T33s and I was in the radio maintenance department. We used to change out radios and work on them. And then one weekend I was in the barracks and a young man came in by Ray Lewis. He said, "I miss my bus. Can somebody here carry me home?" I'll buy the gas and you can stay with me. Well, it happened that I had a car and nobody likes to stay in the barracks on the weekend. So, we went to uh Gilberttown, Alabama. So, we drove down there and we went to church that Sunday and I saw a lady and two other ladies. I mean, y'all had several ladies here, but there was only three in a trio singing. And it happened that my future wife was singing. I said, "Man, that looks pretty good." Brother Sloan. So, the next weekend, man, I I've got to go back and check her out a little more. So, Ray come in. We drove down there and we went to a Sunday school class like y'all have here and some dude from Mobile, Alabama had drove up to visit her. They were dating that weekend and he looked over and saw me said, "Does that guy know you? Do you know that guy?" She said, "No." I said, "He said, I think he'd like to meet you. He would like to know you. Surely enough, after church service that Sunday night, we got to ride in the car, went to the uptown. It was uptown with one red light, nothing open but Coke machines, if you can imagine that. So we drank a Coke and talked and I told her some about me and she told me a little about her. She went into the house and her mother always called her sister. She went to the house and her mother was standing at the door waiting on her. She said, "Sister, you'll date anything." And said, "Mama, his dad's a Pentecostal preacher." Oh, I didn't know that. So everything from that time on, it was okay because my dad was a Pentecostal preacher. Well, it went on and on and after we married, we married in 56. I immediately I had orders to go to Tuli Dreamman. We were engaged and I didn't want to leave a good-looking lady behind and go for a year to Tulie Greenland and be there without her. So I proposed and she agreed to marry me. We got married in December 28th and she needed a half a year to finish her high school. And she finished high school and went to visit my mom and dad to stay there after till I got back home.

And as dad always did, if you give him just a half an inch, he would take it and he'd jump right in and tell you the plan of salvation. And I think every Pentecostal person here today needs to memorize Acts 2:38. Now, I know all the Bible is important. But that's one verse in the Bible. If you come off the street, you don't know anything about God. If they will obey Acts 2:38, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, for you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The promise is unto you. your children and all that are far off, even as many as our Lord shall call. Oh, she she took it. My dad baptized her, you know, she came back and only really bad habit I had is smoking. Now, I don't know how many of you have smoking. I started smoking when I was 13 years old and it grabs a hold of you. It's an addiction that's hard to break. But it's possible to break. Now, my wife and I had had a one boy born, lived a day and a half, it passed away. Then my daughter was born, Kathy Darlene Austin. Then a little while after that, another boy came along. He lived two days, two and a half, passed away. They're up yonder. I believe babies if they've come alive, they're going to go to heaven. So, I just believe that, you know, I can't prove it exactly by the Bible, but I believe that. But I always wanted my daughter and my wife to attend church. You know, I knew it was the best way to keep a family together and it needed family going to church. So everywhere we were stationed after that I was stationed in uh Beluxy Craig Air Force Base, Tulie Greenland, Valdostra, Georgia, Simrna, Tennessee. Man, I was there in a C130 outfit and they moved it to Abalene, Texas. And I went with one wing there to Abalene, Texas. First thing we looked for was a church. And even when we got there, I had bought I I bought a 10 to 57 mobile home that I raised my daughter in. But when we got got to Abalene, the pastor was waiting on us because we stopped to see a preacher in Fort Worth, Texas, Brother Shu, and he called the pastor there and they had a little apartment in the church. We stayed there a few days before we got an apartment. And we met some friends, Bobby and Ellen Clark. become lifelong friends. He's passed away. She's still living. Going to come to see us on the 25th of February. She's a second mother to my mom. But we stayed. We had a wonderful church to attend there. But you know, I'd go to church, God would draw me. In time church was over the altar call, Satan had already talked me out of it. Satan will talk to you just as good as Jesus will. If you if you don't know that, I'm telling you, he's busy 24/7, 7 days a week. So, but you know, we got transferred from Abalene, Texas to Las Vegas, Nevada. Sin City. Can you believe it? Sin City. Well, you know, prayer. And I don't know how God works everything. One day, maybe we'll know. But the first thing I looked for for my family was a church. We found a small church. They had about 20 people, but it was apostolic. They believed like I believe like my wife believed. And I was there just a short time and had to go to Thailand for nine months to leave my family. Well, way we were kind of set up, she would go back to Alabama when I was going to be gone that long and live at home. She could have a job there and my daughter could go to school. But, you know, when they came back, I got, you know, I started going to church with them. Every time I'd go to the church, that little Jesus would talk to me even during the week. Joel, you need you need to give your heart to God.

So this one night, Brother Dallas Meford, one of the best Bible teachers I've ever sat under, was getting up He opened his Bible and he just closed it. And I sitting about halfway back where some of you are sitting. I can't even see who you are. But he's looked out. He said, "There's somebody here that needs to come to the altar that knows as much about this Bible as I do." And who do you think it was? It was me. You know, when your parents are praying for you and when God is talking to you, there's no mistake. I came to the altar and I gave my heart to God.

Like I said, we were living in a 10 to 57 mobile home. God started blessing me. You can't even imagine how God started blessing me. I was still in the Air Force and there was five of us men in the church, bought five acres. I'd working part-time. I always did that when I'm in the Air Force. saved a little money and we were going to build houses. I built a house on it. I borrowed 20,000 from my par in-laws and paid them back. I sold it to a Panama airline captain for 52,500. Now that sounds like peanuts today, but back then that was some money. Then from that house, we went and built another house, make it a little bigger, sold it for $80,000. I said, "Man, that's working pretty good." So, you know, I built another house, sold it for 799. The next one, 179. Then the next one, we built eight houses and lived in them. The next one, after the 189, we moved into a subdivision. It was blocked in fence. Security guard built it, sold it for 5,000 $25. $500,000, excuse me. And I said, "Man, that's pretty good." So the next lot right beside behind us built it, sold it for 750. Built another house, sold it for 800. built the last house I built that we lived in. Sold it for a million 150 in 1989. That was that's quite a bit of money today. But God blessed me because I gave. Now, Brother Sloan is real good at talking about giving. You can't outgive God.

And all the time I was doing that and giving money, God started talking to me in the wee hours. He'd wake me up said, "Joel, I don't need your money. I need you. I need you." You I kind of Well, I don't want to be a preacher. My dad was a preacher. That's enough. But no, it wasn't. He kept waking me up. I don't want your money. I want you. So, finally I said, well, had a chance to go to Jackson, Mississippi, the executive vice president of Church Bible College. And I said, well, maybe this will satisfy the Lord. I was there six years, miserable. I didn't tell you to come here. I told you to build a church.

So, we rode through Chattanooga. Now, this is weird in one way and we're it's not in another. We drove on Interstate 75, got to Shallford Road, I saw a knife museum and a Presbyterian church right off of the freeway. So I didn't say nothing to my wife and we went on my niece graduated from college and when we were coming back I told her I said honey the Lord told me to start a church and to go to that Presbyterian church and started in there. She said, "You're crazy, Joe. You're older. You need to retire." I said, "God told me to do it." So, we went to the Presbyterian church and they agreed to let us have our service there. Didn't charge us anything. They just required me to go to headquarters and get a letter from Brother CM Beckton that I was legit. So, we got in there. I advertised it big. And brother Sloan knows about advertising. But you know, I had 63 people at the first service. They came from Alabama, come from all over because I told them I was starting that church. How many people you think we had the second service? Three. Three people on the second service. Now, if God hadn't called me, Yeah. I would have left, packed up my bags, and gone home then. But when God calls, you need to answer the call. You cannot fail when you answer God's call. Now, look where this church is today. Because I answered the call. My wife was right in it with me, honey. She was there. She played the keyboard. Not as good as this dude over here does, but she did her job. And I'd never sung any songs anywhere except in the shower. I led singing. Well, that group that grew and now it's grown to where it is today. Now, this is the last chapter probably of my life. I'll probably never stand before a group of people and try to talk about coming to the Lord. But, you know, this road is going to end for every one of you someday. Now, you know, I I told you I cry when I'm happy, but I also like funny things. I tell people, God has never healed old age. When he does, you let me know. I pray for it. I want I'll pray, but God never does. And another thing that's kind of funny that Joe Lieberman, if any of you heard from him, he was a a senator from Pennsylvania. He stood up to a pedium podium one time. I saw him speaking. He stood up here and he said, "Behind every successful man, there is a surprised mother-in-law. But my mother-in-law wasn't like that. My wife stood behind me all the way."

Now, I don't know how many in here that's not started your road, but today is a good day to start. Isn't it, Brother Sloan? If you haven't started your road, now is the day to start. You got to start sometime if you want to go up yonder. I don't want to go down under. I want to go up yonder. So now is a good day to start start this road and I promise you this, you will never ever doubt starting this road.