Stuck In The Middle With You | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter

well if you have your bibles and return with me to the book of psalms chapter 48 for excuse me chapter 46. you can read verse number one oh hallelujah oh praise the lord oh victory is mine victory is mine we are the head and not the tail we the church are above and not beneath we the church are predestined for glory we are predestined for glory i got on a plane the other day and i can't remember where i was going now i knew where i was going then but what was a shocker was when the stewardess got on there and said it's just a one-hour flight and named a city that i wasn't going to and i said i'm on the wrong plane but i wasn't on the wrong plane she had her cities messed up see the church is predestined for heaven get in the church and you only get in the church you don't get a church bus voting on you you don't get in the church by a membership role you got to be born in this family you got to be born again well before i read today i i got to make a special note i have two precious friends here nate and jessica now jessica is brother dave nelson's daughter nate is a son-in-law and the reason i'm so thankful to have them here we've been doing bible study they live in florida we've been doing bible study by skype and it's so good i feel like brother nate i need to talk to you through a little screen here this morning but nate and jessica it's so good to have you all at first apostolic church it's so good so good now did i diners did i understand that it was david you celebrated a 50th right 50th did i get that right 50th birthday i i thought so i thought so 50 half a century half a century so good your mom and dad there brother sister murray brother thomas it's so good to see you see y'all this morning we had the most wonderful time of uh just talking the bible a few weeks ago it's so good to have them here somebody else celebrated 50th birthday she grew up at this church probably one of the first young people in the youth department karen franks did i hear that right or is donetta spreading a rumor on you huh all right am i right can't sit to karen happy 50th day you give these these folks here that have turned to half a century give them a big hand right now james and ashley how many how many of y'all baptized the last few months about 30 and some soul winners over here 30. one last thing i want to make note of pray for brother and sister hammond today well the hammond is preaching down in down in louisiana at brother nathan thornton's church and we miss we miss having brother hammond here with us today are we ready to go well i said are we ready to go how many's ready for some victory i don't want to give you a a a facelift today i want to give you a faith lift how many is ready for a faith lift today are you ready for a faith lift psalms 46 and verse number one let's go and read one verse and you can be seated we're going to pray you can be seated and i'm going to continue to read the first verse psalms 46 and verse number 1. why don't you read it with me god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble father anoint me today perilous times are upon us lord but god we know that the church is destined for victory lord we know god that it is not your will that we would live in the spirit of fear lord i pray today as the pastor of this church that you would anoint my lips of clay with your spirit that god that i would take your word and plant it in the hearts of your people today and we would go out on the doors of this church to live victorious in jesus mighty name we pray amen amen you may be seated thank you for standing so long god is ours god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore will not we fear verse two therefore will not we fear y'all reading that with me today therefore you know why they're there's four don't you you got to find out why there's 4 therefore because god is our refuge and god is our strength and god is our very present help in trouble therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea though the waters thereof roar and be troubled though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof selah that word selah there means i want you to pause and i want you to think about what has been said i want to announce my title today and i don't want to offend anybody but i want to preach an old title from an old song that i listen to bc before christ and a song is simply stuck in the middle with you all right i'm stuck in the middle with you i don't know but i can kind of relate to this song in the day that we're living in now in this crazy world we're living in no about you but it's a crazy world we're living it's a crazy world we're living in the elder statesman johnny james said it this way he said if the world fits you you're the wrong size i don't know about you but this is a crazy world that we have found ourselves stuck in and the one part of that song that i'd like to really display the sentiments of my heart how i feel about being stuck in this world clowns to the left jokers to the right i'm stuck in the middle with you you read the whole song the lyrics tells about a man that finds himself in a place that he doesn't even know why he's there he doesn't even know why he's there and his biggest fear is that he'll fall off the chair or can't get down the stairs and then he just looks around and he says clowns to the left jokers to the right stuck in the middle with you he goes on and he writes in this song he writes about being a self-made man he says well you started out with nothing and you're proud that you're a self-made man and your friends come and slap you on the back talking about a self-made man a level of prosperity but then he just comes back but i'm stuck in the middle with you clowns to the left and jokers to the right stuck in the middle with you we're living in a day when no one really knows what to believe anymore there has never been a day in the history of our nation that has been more that we've been more divided as a nation than what we are right now but i have come today with a word from the lord that kept me up pretty much all night long it's amazing and i'm not saying this in a braggadocio way but when god keeps you up all night long with a task and an assignment to do the next day he seems to give you the strength for the next day it's almost as if god says if i'm going to keep you up then i'm going to make sure you've got some strength but it is not god's will that we live as the church in a state of fear it is not god's will that we live in a state of fear because our god is in control not of most things not of almost almost almost things but you look up here at me today look up here at this five foot seven inch green eye preacher for a moment you read my lips god is in control of everything everything come on clap like you mean it right now clap who knows what to believe the only place that you can go to with 100 confidence in what to believe it's called the word of god and i began to read the 46th chapter of psalms and some things came to my mind and i just begin to write it down that it's never before god's people must have faith in god and not only the faith in god but the faith of god we need to know what the faith of god is the faith of god is not this cheap imitation mental positive attitude over situation well just be positive about it try to find something positive to say look at the situation and try to find something positive what i just be a positive person try to look on the bright side try to try to you know try to look on the bright side i know i know a preacher one i knew a preacher one time probably one of the most positive men you'd ever want to be around i tell you how positive this man was he had a small home missions church in west virginia he was trying to dig it out of the side of the mountain there he's trying to win souls for god he lived in a small mobile home and uh one wednesday night after bible study he's out teaching bible studies he's out trying to to to to to to get a church he comes home him him and his newlywed they've got a little ritual that they do and that is after wednesday night bible study they go by the local little market and they get hot dogs and a soft drink that was their little ritual they they always went by the market got their hot dogs in a soft drink and after churches was something that they did together well that wednesday night they stopped by got their hot dogs and their soft drinks they went home they put the hot dogs on the kitchen table they went in to get out of their church clothes and into their pajamas and they come back out and eat their hot dogs when brother ferguson the trailer had an electrical fire and there's nothing that spread faster through a mobile home than an electrical fire they barely escaped in the middle of the winter out of the mobile home with their pajamas on they were barefooted they were both barefooted in the middle of the winter in a moment in a few moments their mobile home was engulfed in flames and they stood on a dark hill looking at the house burnt down and the husband simply said i was trying to think of something to say and he said i just turned to my wife and i said bet you them hot dogs are done well that's good but still yet your feet's cold still yet there's a life to be rebuilt so when we begin to talk about well just be a positive person that's not what the faith of god is the faith of god is not just looking at situations in a positive way it's much deeper than that i said it's much deeper than that the faith of god is rooted in god's word it is rooted in a knowledge that we are god's children i am god's son you are god's daughter we are god's church and god has a purpose for his church i said god has a purpose for his church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against the purpose of god's church nothing we hear in the news nothing we see happening around us should detour us from the fact of the knowledge of god's word that god is in control don't worry don't fret don't lose sleep get your faith rooted in god's word god is in control if you don't you're going to have to sing the song stuck in the middle with you clowns to the left and jokers to the right the psalmist begins to write in psalms 46 and 1 that god is our refuge and strength a very present help in time of trouble a very present help in time of trouble the hebrew word there for for for strength is like recharge it has to do with recharging your strength a very present help god is our refuge and strength recharge strength he's our recharge we all have these cell phones and all of us have one thing in common you have to always be re-charging them because if you don't recharge them they die the battery dies and so there's a time that you have to recharge them there's a time that we must have our god faith recharged he is our strength and then it says a very present help a very present help in trouble this word trouble here this this word trouble means tightness or it means in a corner or it means a narrow way he is our refuge and our recharge and a very present help in the time of narrow tight backed in a corner no place to go not a lot of options can i get a witness not a lot of options backed in a corner a narrow way vinnie goes in and it's interesting to to know what he says in verse 2 because he is there in that tight place he is a very present help now notice verse number one it doesn't just say that god is present in the narrow way it doesn't just say that god is present when you don't have that many uh options it uses the word press it uses the word ver very verily he is a very present very present help in trouble he's it's almost as to emphasize that you know i don't know if anybody can relate to this or not but have you ever had your back against the wall have you ever been to a place that that that that there was it was narrow there was really no places decisions to go you whatever whatever you feared was coming upon you and there you were with your back against a wall in a narrow place but he wants us to know that in the midst of our narrow place and in this crazy world we're living in today we find ourselves as people as never before being just restricted and restricted and restricted and restricted and restricted and restricted and restricted but i've come this morning with a word from the from the word of god today to tell you god is our refuge and a strand a refuge and strength a very present help in trouble if we get our eyes off of him we will be of all men most miserable i'm saying today that we need to start talking more about scripture and less about world events we need to start talking more about the power and presence of our god than what's going on around us i'm not saying that we're to be ignorant of what's going on around us i'm not saying we are to ignore what's going on around us but as the man of god talking to the church of the living god who is predestined for glory i am telling you today that we need to get our minds more on the promises of god and the power of god and the presence of god because if we don't if we don't i i tell you if we don't we're stuck in the middle turn your television on to your news clowns to the left jokers to the right stuck in the middle get all your information from your television get all your information from your newspaper get all your information from your radio i was talking to somebody the other day and i just made this statement you know there's a lot of men and women need to do a lot of public apologizing okay because there was a lot of public prophecy going on that president trump would be elected re-elected well he wouldn't i tell you what made me think of that i was reading i'm reading through the bible this year and this year this week it had a scripture in jeremiah and god was rebuking a man and it sees god simply said this about it god just simply said he maketh himself a prophet you don't make yourself a prophet you're called to be a prophet say well yeah this brother was telling me that this is going on in the pentagon and this is going on here and i say ain't that that same brother that told you donald trump will be back at 1600 pennsylvania avenue yeah but he feels like something's going to go on and something's going and i want to say get over it get over it it was just an election but i'm going to tell you what i'm concerned about i'm concerned about the apostle paul asked the church he said make sure that your election and calling is sure in other words you better make sure that your foots on the rock and your mind is made up you you better make sure you don't get carried away with the left and carried away with the right jokers to the left the clowns to the left jokers to the right you better understand i'm a child of the living god i go to the bible for my information i go to the bible for my uplift i don't go to the spiritual national inquirers to try to find out what's going to happen jesus is coming soon greater is he that is within me than he that is in the world no weapon formed against me will prosper and i've got the hallelujah victory this morning because of that oh y'all just excuse me y'all just might want to excuse me you might not want to get up and go to the restroom because i might just have an aisle running fit hit me here in a little bit therefore we will not fear therefore we therefore will not we fear verse 2. look at this next word though do you know that word though there means it's possible does it mean it's happened doesn't mean it's happened it just uses the word though you know why are so many people all faithless about a vow they're all faithless they've lost their faith they've lost their focus with god though do you know that this could happen and you know that that could happen well he went ahead and said in verse 2 therefore will not we fear though i wish you'd say though that that that's that's that means though it's not heaven though the earth be removed and say it again though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea verse 3 though the waters thereof roar and be troubled though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof selah you know what it's really saying there though the landscape changes though what you can see here changes though the landscape changes let me ask you something what keeps you in your relationship with jesus christ the landscape what keeps you in relationship with jesus christ the economy some folks are losing the victory over having to pay three bucks for a gallon of gas get over it just get over it you could praise god when you was paying a buck fifty though the landscape changes can you serve god when the landscape changes he says i want you to pause he put a sealer there he said i want you to pause when your landscape changes can you serve god when things around you change can you serve god seal it just think about it just just think about it how well are you doing now that you're unemployed how well are you doing now that you're a single parent how well are you doing now that you put flowers on a daddy's grave how well are you doing now that you found out that your best friend was really a backstabber how well are you doing now when the landscape changes what's the key word though i wish you'd say that with me though though though though but then verse four he says all right you thought about it and verse four starts out there that's not a though that's a there all right a though is a possibility a there is a fact there is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of our god the holy place of the tabernacle of the most high god is in the midst of her she shall not be moved god shall help her and that right early the heathen rage clowns to the left jokers to the right the heathen rage and the kingdoms were moved he uttered his voice the earth melted all clowns to the left jokers to the right all the heathen are raging i saw just a clip on social media of a bunch of fools that are going to eradicate christianity and they're choosing a day in which all of them will thrust their middle finger up in the air at 2 pm and they're saying that they're going to eradicate christianity fool you are there's coming a day why do the heathen rage why do the heathen rage and all of this because there's going to come a day the heathen rage and the kingdoms removed he uttered his voice and the earth melted i don't know if the rapture of the church will be a bleep on the radar of the world but there will be there will be a day that god will get the attention of all of this earth there will be a day that god will get his final say when the creator when the judge of all judges shall mount his royal white throne and he'll call every kingdom to come into him he'll subpoena every kingdom to come because the king of all kings the creator of the world is going to reign i'm here to tell you today clowns to the left and jokers to the right i want you to know my faith is in the almighty god i am let the let the landscape changing let everything change around us let the world keep restricting us and restricting us but the church is going to march on in victory we are going to face our giants we're going to face our goliath we are the church today we have been called according to i wish you'd give him some praise with me right now hallelujah verse seven i want to read this whole chapter the lord of hosts is with us look at verse 7 the lord of hosts is with us now notice the lord of hosts he takes upon himself here his captain roll his warrior robe he is the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our refuge sila refuge is a place you find in danger refuge is a place you find in danger refuge is a place you find in danger refuge is a place when fear because you you you're caught up with those of your life you're caught up with those you don't you're not interested in facts you're interested in those clowns to the left jokers to the right you're interested in in all of that but he says he says to you i have a place i have a refuge i am that refuge when life crumbles on you i promise you i promise you a praise a a praise session in your life we'll do more than you than a session of watching the news a praise session we'll do more for your faith than being glued to something that might or might not be true and it affects your life you need to understand today that our refuge is in god you say are you trying to downplay the pandemic i'm not trying to downplay the pandemic i'm trying as a man of god and as a man that was up most of the night to come to this pulpit and tell the church though the mountains be moved and though the the the water cease to be there is a river there is a source before your life starts falling apart because you've got some kind of news why don't you try finding the refuge finding the rock bless his name and worship his name and read his word and believe his word come verse 8 come and behold the works of the lord what desolations he has made in the earth he maketh wars to cease verse nine he maketh wars to cease he maketh wars to cease oh brother carpenter have you heard about afghanistan i have heard about afghanistan i'm already praying for the boys and girls young men and young women that's going to go fight over in afghanistan it's it's erupted again but can i tell you i am not here to downplay afghanistan and i'm not here to downplay the pandemic but i am here to uplift faith and i am here to uplift god and i am here to get him high and to get him lifted up that's what a watchman on the wall does he doesn't to the flute he blows a trumpet he doesn't speak in a whisper he speaks in a cry i'm telling you i'm not denying the pandemics save your emails and your anonymous letters save all that junk for somebody else i already know where it's going to go amen but i'm here to tell you i'm not here to downplay a pandemic let's do everything we can to stay safe but we've got to understand that god never gave a commandment that we were not able to fulfill my faith is in the word of god my faith is in the word of god is the pandemic bad yes it is bad but can i tell you what my faith is in my faith is in mark 16 and verse number 15 and he said unto them go ye into all the world unless there's a pandemic no go into all the world unless there's a pandemic oh i wish somebody shout i'm adding something to the word get violent with me today go into all the world unless there's a pandemic go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shall be down and these signs shall follow them that believe as long as there's not a pandemic as long as somebody hasn't got some kind of biological chemical warfare and these signs shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay their hands on the sick and the sick shall recover and that's the god that i'm going to serve come on church we're believers we're believers today i'm not denying a pandemic i'm lifting up a god in heaven that's what i'm lifting up today come on praise him right now it's not god's will that we live in fear it's not god's will that we live in fear god never gave you a commandment that you cannot obey living in fear people living in fear i'm not down playing the pandemic i'm not saying we shouldn't wash our hands i'm not saying all of that do it i do it i went to the hospital to pray for my sister-in-law i affectionately i've known her all my life just about i affectionately call her aunt jeanette she just had open-heart surgery and i went yesterday and prayed with her and i guarantee you i washed my hands not once not twice but seven times 70 coming out of that hospital all right have faith in god are you stuck in the middle is that where you're at today clowns to the left jokers to the right are you stuck in the middle not me i'm not stuck in the middle of the world like that i am in a world billy but i am not of this world i am in this world but i am not of this world the way we think and the way we act is not according to this world we have a god that steps into situations and the world says it's death but let him visit and if god can say it's alive we have a name that is above every name we have a praise we have a praise session we can get in the presence of god and we can begin to magnify jesus we can begin to magnify jesus we can begin to bless his holy name we can begin to magnify him and the god of all heaven can come to our sides a narrow place a narrow place well let me let me i'm going to try to bring this to a close isaiah chapter 54. could i preach a little longer to you today isaiah chapter 54 oh hallelujah oh thank you jesus isaiah chapter 54 and verse number 10 isaiah 54 and verse number 10 please pray for those putting my scriptures on the screen today they have a picture of my handwritten notes normally i have time to put them all together and type and and they're trying to decipher i see them turning the page upside down in this way today isaiah chapter 54 and verse number 10. let's look at it for a moment for the mountains shall depart and the hill shall be removed but my kindness shall not be depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the lord that hath mercy on thee he says the landscape may change but my mercy doesn't change the pandemic cannot affect our faith in god unless we allow it to affect our faith in god verse 11 o thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted behold now this is this is god speaking i will lay thy stones with fair colors and thy foundations with sapphires i will make thy windows of gates and thy gates of carbuncles and thy borders of pleasant stones and all thy children shall be taught of the lord and great shall be the peace of thy children in righteousness shalt thou be established thou shalt be far from oppression could i add here clowns to the left jokers to the right for thou shalt not what thou shalt not what thou sh shout not what thou shalt not fear and from terror for it shall not come near thee behold they shall surely gather together but not by me whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake behold i have created the smith that blow up the coals in the fire and that bringeth forth the instrument from his for his work i have created the waster to destroy in other words god is saying in the midst of your life that you can't understand the landscape has changed but i've got news for you i am your peace fear not i got news for you you feel the hot fire of the smith god says i created the smith he's got a fire going i have allowed all of this to happen i have allowed it could god have stopped the pandemic let me give the answer yes could god have stopped this yes so in that he didn't stop it i have to step back and believe that god is allowing it for a work of perfection upon the church it will either drive you closer to god or it will drive you away from god what is the determining factor where are your eyes clowns to the left jokers to the right where is your eyes on the media believing everything that you hear no your word your eyes have got to be on god it has got to be on god's word for he said i will never leave you nor ever forsake you i am with you alway even to the end so i've got to believe i feel the heat from the smith i feel the heat but god is saying don't give up i'm making something out of you as never before i say there's things being destroyed and god says there's things in your life that need to be destroyed because i am doing a work and then i can't i cannot stop to read god's altar call i cannot i would be sinning if i didn't read god's altar call to this verse 17 no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise up against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn this is the heritage of the servants of the lord and their righteousness is of me sayeth the lord come on folks i'm not reading out of the funny papers i'm not reading out of some magazine i'm reading out of god's word no weapon form i wish you'd help me praise him right now i wish you'd just take a praise session right now oh god i wish you'd take a praise session right now you maybe see you got a little children in this church fearful and afraid come on they need to hear that god is in control of all of this god is in control yeah but blue carpet this is a tight place yeah it is yeah it is yeah it is yeah it is a tight place feel the restrictions all around the church is being oppressed as never before there are things being discussed about our religious freedoms as never before that were never discussed preaching the gospel and standing against sin is now finding its way into legislators that one day u.s may be like canada you know in canada if you're a preacher of the gospel and you cry out against immorality that you're fine you're fined it'll come here because they say it's hate crime they say we're promoting hate we're not promoting hate we're not promoting hate we're building up righteousness is it a tight place it's a tight place you know why it's tight you know it's tight it's whatever is in the world will eventually seep into the church this world's divided more than it's ever been let's not allow it to divide us thank god thank god i live in america if i want to say i'm a democrat i'm a democrat thank god i live in america if i want to say i'm a republican i'm a republican thank god that i can go vote i thank god for that but as never before the world is divided but not the church we can't let that get in here we won't let that get in here we're here to lift up a name and a plan of salvation and a way of living that's the only reason we're here we're not here for any other reason but to lift up a name a plan and a way of life i'm here today to tell you if we let the world we'll come here one day and there'll be clowns to the left and please i'm not talking literally today all right but we don't want to get caught up in that way of living wow it's quiet here today it's quiet in here today was it that i said the d word or was it that i said the r word i tell you the d word that i like is deliverer and the r word that i love is redeemer is it tight is it tight yes it's tight yes it is tight but can i tell you if you go the wrong direction it will only get tighter if you go the wrong direction let's end today's bible study with this let's let's end today let's go to the book of numbers the book of numbers let's go to numbers chapter 22 god i'm so glad my faith is in you oh i wish george acres were i wish george acres was here to sing jesus my hope is in you oh jesus my hope is in you nobody else hope is in you oh jesus my hope is in you don't you feel like that right now oh jesus my hope is would you just worship him with me nobody else can carry us through oh jesus my hope is in you one more time oh jesus my hope is in you oh jesus my hope is in you nobody else can carry us through oh jesus my hope is in you if you mean it today would you love him right now would you love him right now oh god is it hallelujah is it tight yeah it's tight yeah it's tight yeah it's tight it's an interesting story that i'd like to end with in numbers chapter 22 verse 6. the story is about is the children of israel god's chosen god's delivered the old testament type of the church had been delivered by the mighty hand of god out of egyptian bondage and by the awesome plan of the almighty god was going to be made a nation it didn't matter what pagan heathen countries came against this ragtag group of hebrews they had a covenant of abraham isaac and jacob and no nation could stand before them it wasn't anything that was in them it was the god that they served the god that they serve gave them the canaan land the god that they serve gave them exceeding promises one nation after another nation came out in the wilderness to attack israel only to find that the god that delivered them from egyptian bondage was the god that defeated all of them bigger nations more developed nations nations more prepared for battle came out against israel only to suffer shame and defeat finally there was a pagan heathen king by the name of balak and balak knew that the only way to defeat israel was a spiritual curse they had to be cursed spiritually for their god is a spirit and the only way that israel can be cursed is to curse them spiritually so there is a man in the old testament uh brother nate i call him the mystery man i call him a mystery man his name is balaam and the reason i call him a mystery man he can get in touch with god he can get in touch with god but he doesn't know god's plan let that sink in for a moment he can get in touch with god but he doesn't know the full plan of god of taking israel out of bondage making them a people in canaan he can get in touch with god no problem but he's ignorant of the full plan of god i want to stop there for a moment i don't want us to become a church that can get in touch with god but we don't know the full plan of god i don't want anybody to die i don't welcome preaching another funeral as a matter of fact if i don't preach another funeral it wouldn't hurt my feelings one iota but can i tell you when you're a child of god you don't have to fear death man if i didn't believe this i wouldn't be a preacher today when you're a child of god you do not have to fear death you don't welcome death it doesn't break your heart to say goodbye it doesn't break your heart to watch your mama breathe our last breath but when you know there's one who has the keys unless you're just acting like you believe it unless there's one that you really believe that 2000 years ago came in human flesh and paid the ultimate sacrifice on a tree called calvary and was buried died and was buried in a tomb but three days later resurrected again and has the keys of death hell and the grave and because he lives i can face tomorrow because he lives all hope i have found a hope of fear is gone because he lives come on church when we laid precious believers to death it's just a momentary you may be seated i know people that can get a hold of god or they can pray their way to god's presence they can praise their way to god's presence well didn't you feel the lord oh yeah i'm sure you did but can i ask you something do you know his whole plan because balaam could get a hold of god bailey don't get him confused balak's the heathen king balaam's the mystery man he can get a hold of god balak comes to balak comes to balaam and balak says there's a group of people come out of egypt and i need you to curse them and of course balaam balik brought a lot of money with him and balaam said sure i'll go and get a hold of god and he went got a hold of god god told him you cannot curse are you listening you cannot curse what i have blessed god has blessed the church i said god has blessed the church you cannot no government no pandemic no set of laws no set of rules can curse what god has blessed that's what ought to drive you into the house of fellowship i hope this is all right today i plan to get me a good nap between this service and tonight's service all right he walks back down the hill he says bailey take your money with you he says uh they're blessed and there's not a curse that can reverse the blessed well the world is a stubborn world i wish the church would get as half stubborn as the world is i wish we would get half as bold because when the world wants to silence us then they grab for their microphone so you can't can't reverse you can't reverse the blessing well balak the heathen is not all that convinced so guess what he does he goes gets more honorable celebrities i added that part he goes gets more honorable well more honorable nobles more well-known and more money and they bring back to balaam and balaam says oh man you're better known than those other guys you know jokers that left clowns you're better known than these other guys you know and uh and that's how much how much how many how many gold bags are on those donkeys let me go i mean oh there's a whole lot more here balaam and balaam said let me go check it out and you know what god always gets angry when you go back for another answer when he's already gay listen get off your talk show his is always the final answer it's always the final answer balaam goes back you know god they're back and god said god got angry he said just go just go so he saddled his donkey and he took off riding and when he did god said i'm going to do something here god put an angel in the pathway with a flaming sword you know balaam's just riding around he's going to get wealthy he's going man he's going to get wealthy he's going to be really known because remember remember balaam can get a hold of god but he doesn't know the donkey looks up balaam he's got two of his friends with him balaam and two of his friends can't see the angel but the donkey can sing well what does that say what's that say balaam they just ride along angels standing the road with the sword donkey looks up oh donkey trots off in the field and bailey what in the world's going on here what what what is going on here hey the angel gets over in the field with his sword and the donkey goes back into a vineyard and then the bible says the donkey got in a it says it the donkey got in a narrow place and stood the angel of the lord stood and when that angel of the lord stood and balaam is beating the donkey trying to get the donkey to move on through the narrow place that donkey just laid down on its side and crushed balaam's foot can i tell you that you can either wait for balaam's men to come and they're going to take you to a much narrower place than where you are right now or you can wait in that narrow place that we're in and the lord is our strength the lord is our strength i don't know about you today but every message ought to come back around to jesus there could not be in a more narrow place than the woman with the issue of blood she had spent all that she had and was none the better but rather grew worse there could be no more narrow of a place than to continually bleed and to die to to be dying but somebody told her in her narrow place somebody told her about jesus can i add this part to this story i i don't believe in all my years of ministering the word i've ever added this to this story by the eriksen but the woman said if i can just touch the hem of his garment could it be the reason that she signified the hymn of his garment was that she had grown so weak with bleeding that all she could do was crawl all she could do was crawl and in the midst of her crawling she said if i can just but touch the helm of his garment can i tell every person here today that's in a tight place a narrow place this morning don't give up if you will stand with me right now and our musicians would come and we could call out upon the name of jesus today in your narrow place will come the wonderful savior of heaven for he said in his word that whosoever would call upon the name of the lord shall be saved is it narrow my sister is it narrow my brother are you in a narrow place this morning are you lonely is all hope just about gone could it be today that god has brought you here to tell you in your narrow place i'll step through and be your god with those of your life i am able to give you a remember this morning i'm able to reach out and touch you this morning come on let's pray right now oh let's pray right now let's pray right now oh mighty god of heaven mighty god of heaven mighty god of heaven mighty god of heaven oh come to him right now call out his name would it help you to come around the altar and just just call out his name today jesus i need your help jesus the storm is raging all around jesus we're in a narrow place jesus i need your help god jesus i need wisdom is never before god oh jesus i need wisdom it's never before lord god i need your wisdom as never before god without any pride at all i'll come down this altar i'll march down the aisle today god i need your help this morning