Transcript of a published sermon by Marrell Cornwell, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
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Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
Arrival, and the text directed (0:00-1:26)
- Cornwell opens the service himself, directing the congregation to Genesis chapter 12 — a familiar text, deliberately: preaching in someone else's church, he says, he does not preach anything new, but takes a passage people can follow. He thanks his pilot, brother Jean Foster, who flew him in that night, greets the host pastor, brother Anthony, and sister Nita (whose husband could not be present), and begins the reading.
The call of Abraham, read (1:26-3:22)
- He reads the call: God tells Abram to leave his country, his kindred, and his father's house for a land God will show him, with the promises — a great nation, a great name, blessing on those who bless him and cursing on those who curse him, and all the families of the earth blessed in him. Then verses 4-5: Abram departs as the Lord had spoken, at seventy-five years old, taking Sarai, Lot his brother's son, and all their substance, and comes into Canaan. God gives Abraham four commands and seven promises, Cornwell observes — God always gives more promises than demands, and a demand on a life is itself a mark of being a child of God. Then he asks whether anything in the reading is amiss.
Scriptures: Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 12:4-5
God's new beginning, and Abraham's mistake (3:22-8:31)
- Abraham is the father of the faithful, everything good traced back to him — and this is the one time he makes a mistake at the very outset: God told him to leave everything behind, and in verse 4 he took Lot with him. Genesis 12 is not only Abraham's new beginning but God's: Adam and Eve failed, Cain killed Abel and God started over with Seth; the flood brought a start-over with Noah; but at Babel there was no Noah to find grace, and God wrote that world off completely and started again with Abraham — Cornwell has written "God's New Beginning" above chapter 12 in his own Bible. Why Abraham took Lot, he speculates — seventy-five years old, one foot in the grave and one on a banana peel, perhaps persuaded Lot would be his strength — but when God calls a man to do something, he must do it the way God tells him; there is no substitute for anything outside God's will. (He guesses brother Anthony's age at sixty-one or sixty-two, and notes his internet survey finding that most of America's fastest-growing churches are pastored by men over fifty-five.)
The gasoline prophecy, and the revival prophesied (8:31-14:07)
- After years of feeling America was going down, he says, he has preached for the last eight or nine or ten years that God is going to send an awakening, the greatest revival America has ever had. He tells how, when gasoline was headed toward six dollars a gallon and he was paying $4.69 and $4.49 at the pump, he began singlehandedly praying against the prices — prophesying from his pulpit that gasoline would go below two dollars, cursing the hate, greed, and selfishness driving them — until the prices edged down and he filled his tank at a Quick Trip for $1.79 a gallon, receipt in hand. What God did there, God will do with revival (his services are broadcast live around the world, thousands connected on a Sunday morning): he does not want this church to double in a decade, the old Sunday School promotion — he prophesies it will double in one single revival. And not just in big places: this is Stephens, Arkansas, piney woods; his wife was raised in a town of eleven hundred where the church ran seven hundred; he was raised at Frogmore, Louisiana, where the church now runs over five hundred. It is not the size of the town but the size of the preacher and the child of God in the town.
New beginnings at every change of life (14:07-19:59)
- Abraham disobeyed, and once a man disobeys God once it is easier to disobey twice; no one is too young or too old to make a mistake, and every life needs periods of new beginnings. A few weeks earlier Cornwell found himself at his own altar — going down to pray for somebody else, as a pastor and bishop who did not want people to think him backslid, then crawling up to the altar to repent and correct things in his own life (he is, he jokes, only forty-nine years old — see the packet on that figure). How often does a man need a new beginning, a renewing of the Holy Ghost? Every time there is a situational change in his life: the Holy Ghost that kept a child will not keep a juvenile, nor a juvenile a teenager; at twenty, at marriage, at a job change, after three weeks in a hospital — and the Holy Ghost that keeps a saint will not keep a preacher, nor an evangelist a pastor; each stage takes a stronger dose. Some on his own pews have not prayed through in twenty-five years.
Partial obedience: Saul (19:59-23:22)
- Abraham picked up Lot and brought him along — and there is a thing called partial obedience: a man can do a hundred things right and mix in one thing wrong and convince himself he is doing all right. God chose Saul and told him to utterly destroy the Amalekites; Saul destroyed the nation but spared Agag and the oxen and sheep for sacrifice, and told Samuel he had been obedient — while Samuel could hear the bleating and lowing. God is in the blessing business, and every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, who does not change: if God blesses a man he has to keep on blessing him. When things never go right, the cause is often learned partial obedience — and partial obedience leads to blindness; sometimes it is no better than no obedience at all.
Verse 7: left out of the covenant, and the altar (23:22-26:04)
- When Abraham took Lot with him, look at verse 7: "and the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared" — Cornwell reads it twice and asks what is wrong with it. In verses 1-3 everything was Abraham, Abraham, Abraham; in verse 7 God leaves Abraham out of the equation: he does not say "unto you and your seed" but "unto thy seed" will I give this land. God removed Abraham from the covenant promise. Abraham understood it instantly — that is why the altar-builder built this altar — and we are too close to going home, too close to the Rapture and to death, to let God remove us from the covenant.
Scriptures: Genesis 12:7
The evangelist who could not feel God (26:04-29:23)
- Cornwell tells his own: as a young evangelist in California, in revivals where two and three hundred people received the Holy Ghost, he let pride and arrogance into his spirit and went nine months without being able to feel the presence of God — preaching revivals where over two hundred received the Holy Ghost and never feeling God once. On the last night of a fifteen- or sixteen-week revival at Riverside, after telling the pastor he had to close it and was ready to quit preaching, he crawled under the grand piano, laid his face on it weeping — if I can't feel you, I can't preach anymore — and after about two hours, with the lights out and everyone gone, the presence of God touched him again. We need God's presence more today than we have ever needed it. Abraham knew what had happened, and built the altar; and an altar is a place of death, a place of repentance, a place of correction, a place of consecration.
The blessing on the man, and the altars of 9/11 (29:23-32:02)
- He speaks a word over this church: the real blessings of God are not on the church but on this man — the church will rise and fall with the blessing that falls on him — though he wants the blessing of God on his own life as well as on theirs. Then 9/11: when the Twin Towers fell on a Tuesday, his own church's parking lot was full that evening without any announcement, every seat taken, strangers praying and crying at full altars; all across America — Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis — people built altars and held prayer meetings, every religion together. And in the midst of it, not one honky-tonk shut down, not one porn site closed, not one beer joint closed its doors: America learned how to pray, but never learned how to repent, and never learned how to correct itself. Altars are dangerous things to put in a church unless the people understand what they are for: correction, consecration, dedication.
Praying without correcting (32:02-38:05)
- It is dangerous to come to the altar on Sunday night and pray and not correct yourself. He tells of a woman in his church who would pray and talk in tongues at the altar every Sunday night and be offended and backslid before she reached the back door — until, he jokes, he bought a four-pound sledgehammer to put in his pulpit. People have apparent breakthroughs and go back out to their gossiping, their foul attitudes, their bad spirits; it is not a sin to smile, to be kind, to love people, to treat your wife right and love your husband. Some of us need the foul-smelling spirit washed off our lives the way he had to wash the barbecue smell off his hands after brother Anthony's barbecue place. He watches his own large prayer room: when people are right with God it is filled before church; when they are doing wrong and do not correct themselves, they cannot feel God, and when they cannot feel God they quit praying — and he travels to some forty churches a year, Maine to San Diego, Seattle to Miami, and finds prayerless United Pentecostal churches in America, churches that built altars but never corrected themselves.
Leaving the altar: verse 9, the famine, and Egypt (38:05-42:21)
- When you quit praying at the altar, the next mistake is verse number 9 — "Abraham journeyed going on towards the South" — leaving the altar and then the house of God (we enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; the praise is lost because we did not correct ourselves at the altar). Abraham went down into Egypt to sojourn because the famine was grievous — but the famine was not designed to send him to Egypt; it was designed to turn him back to Bethel. The book of Ruth tells the same story: Elimelech and Naomi left Bethlehem-Judah, the house of bread, in a famine, and Elimelech and the two sons died, and Naomi came back bitter — while Ruth gleaned in the field, received handfuls of purpose, married Boaz, and came to own the field (the book is named; nothing of it is read — see the packet). In Egypt Abraham made his greatest mistake of all: he told Sarah to say she was his sister, and Pharaoh reached out to take her before God smoked Pharaoh and the deception came out.
Scriptures: Genesis 12:9
When mistakes reach the family: the $211 check (42:21-44:30)
- A man who leaves the altar eventually affects his entire family. Cornwell tells of a charter member of his Wichita church from the days after three splits in six months, when the church was down to twenty people and had no money: the man came to his office asking him to cash a check for $211, and Cornwell could not — the church had no money (the captions carry both $211 and $21 through the telling; nothing is settled between the forms). The man got angry, and quit; his wife quit, his four children quit, his grandkids quit; and at a funeral a few days before this sermon, Cornwell saw the family — not one grandchild, not one child, not the wife, nobody living for God anymore. When Abraham's mistakes started affecting his family, he got up and went back to Bethel.
Back to Bethel (44:30-45:23)
- He directs them to chapter 13, verse 1, and reads: Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him — Lot still there — very rich in cattle and silver and gold, and went on his journeys from the south to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, back to the place of the altar he had made there at the first — and there Abraham called on (the reading stops at the opening words of verse 4). But this time he is going to correct himself at the altar; that is why the man of God put these altars in this church — for people to correct themselves. Have a love affair with the altar in the church.
Scriptures: Genesis 13:1-3
The separation from Lot (45:23-47:19)
- He directs them to verse 5 and reads the separation: Lot also had flocks, herds, and tents; the land was not able to bear them together, their substance was great; there was strife between Abram's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt in the land; and Abram said to Lot, let there be no strife between me and thee, for we are brethren — the whole land is before you; if you take the left hand I will go to the right, and if you go to the right I will go to the left. It sounds reasonable and honourable, Cornwell says — but it was not. Abraham was a giant of a man, a man of extreme authority, and Lot was his nephew; either of them could have straightened up the herdsmen. Abraham used the strife as a flimsy excuse to get rid of the sin in his life: he was determined to separate from Lot one way or the other, so glad to be rid of him that he gave him the best land, the well-watered plains of Jordan that were supposed to be Abraham's.
Scriptures: Genesis 13:5-9
Restored to the covenant, and room for everybody (47:19-52:27)
- As soon as Abraham had corrected himself at the altar, look — "I think in verse number nine — I'm sorry, verse number 14": and the Lord said unto Abram, after Lot was separated from him, lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward. Now you have a new beginning: God is going to give you this county — not the city of Stephens, this entire county. And he puts a parenthesis in: this church does not want revival. Let fifty people pray through on a Sunday and among them will be people qualified to be deacons, to play the drums and guitars and piano, to sing better than brother Anthony — and when they pray through they will want your place, your pew, your groove in the pew; his own Wichita church, starting from twenty-one people, froze people out and ran them off for taking their places. Open the door to everybody: whosoever will, let them come and drink the waters of life freely; there is room in the house of God for everybody — his own church is fourteen percent African-American, fourteen percent Hispanic, seven percent Asian, five percent mixed race, and its Christmas program takes two hours because every group has to sing. When Abraham went back to the place of the altar at the beginning and corrected himself, God put him back in the covenant: all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever (the words of verse 15, voiced here in the recap). He did not get back into the covenant until he corrected himself — and there is no room in the kingdom of God for hatred, jealousy, or covetousness.
Scriptures: Genesis 13:14-15
The dedication-eve close (52:27-54:57)
- Would you stand: Lord, when I go to the altar, make sure I correct myself, because I do not want to be removed from the covenant of almighty God. He leads the prayer — let me build my altar; let me correct myself at the altars I build; an outpouring of the Holy Ghost in my life, my children's lives, this church's life. Then he calls everyone out of the pews to gather around the altars and touch one: tomorrow is the formal dedication of this building — tonight we are going to dedicate the altars — these altars were built for me; I want to be a part of this New Testament covenant, a part of the kingdom of God; I want my church to grow and have revival. The recording ends inside that altar call.
Scripture index: Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 12:4-5; Genesis 12:7; Genesis 12:9; Genesis 13:1-3; Genesis 13:5-9; Genesis 13:14-15.
Transcript
open your Bible please to Genesis chapter 12 and I'll get to chapter 13 a little bit later but I want you to open to chapter 12 and verse one I am not going to preach anything new tonight I've always been taught that when you preach a meeting someplace else besides your own church take a text that people are familiar with and that way you won't lose them by trying to get a obscure passage of scripture and trying to preach something brand new and get something that they can follow you and interpret with you praise God so I'm going to the Book of Genesis chapter 12 beginning at verse number one I'm thankful for my pilot brother Jean Foster that flew me here tonight to be with you I always like for Jean to come because I like to preach to him I look at all of you y'all are so perfect so I'm going to have to preach to Jean tonight amen when I first met Jean he started off being just Jean and then he got to being clean Jean and then he been with me so long he is now Saint Jean and every once a while he backslides back down to Jean Amen brother Anthony I'm glad to be with you and your family sister Nita I love you and your husband praise God I'm so sorry that he could not be with us tonight praise God now the Lord said unto Abram get thee out of thy country and from thy Kindred and from thy Father's House unto a land that I will show Thee I will make of thee a great nation I Will Bless Thee I will make thy name Great Thou shalt be a blessing I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed God gives Abraham four commands and seven promises and when I look at the passage of scripture it makes me realize that we don't need to regret the commands that God gives us because always he's going to give us more promises in the end that he makes demands on our life can I have an amen has God ever made a demand on your life if he's never made a demand on your life then don't count yourself as a child of God but in the midst of all the demands that God puts on our life he always gives us many more blessings and Promises than commands can I have it amen and then verse four Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him and then there's a semicolon there and then it says and lot went with him and Abram was 75 years old when he Departed parted out of heran and Abraham took Sarah his wife and lot his brother's son and all their subst they had gathered and the souls that they had gotten in heran and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan and into the land of Canaan they came and you may be seated praise God Amen does anybody notice anything a Miss in these verses that I have read to you there is something that is greatly a miss In this passage we know Abraham to be the father of the faithful everything in the New Testament always refers back to our Father Abraham Abraham is the father of the faithful he is the reason of faith everything that you want to say good has to be traced back to our Father Abraham can I have it amen but this is one time that Abraham makes a mistake and God says I want you to leave this country I want you to get away from your kin folks and away from your father's house unto a land that I will show thee and and God tells Abraham from the very outset I want you to leave everything behind and I'm going to give you something brand new and I'm going to be a blessing to you I'm going to bless them that bless you I'm going to curse them that curse you I'm going to make of you you a great nation and I can see the eyes of the Lord as he lightens up his eyes when he calls Abraham out of the earth of the caldes out of the world and he starts over because this is not only Abraham's New Beginning it's also God's New Beginning can I have an amen somebody we know that Adam and Eve failed in the garden and and and we know that Cain and Abel was in the the image of Adam and Eve and and Adam and Eve made a mistake and and and Cain kills Abel and
God has to start over with a Seth and then when the flood came God started over with a Noah and when when the land was evil and everything was wrong the Bible says Noah found Grace in the eyes of the Lord and God said build an ark to the saving of thy house and we know that there was a new beginning with Noah and his three sons and their wives and Noah's wife and God started over with them but when it came to time for Abraham Nimrod was building a tower to heaven and God looked at that world and said there's nothing now that will be withheld from them that they imagined to do let's go down and I will destroy the Tower and the city which they built and God literally wrote that world off there was not a Noah there to find Grace in the ey Lord there wasn't anybody that found Grace in God's eyes that God could start over with and God literally wrote that world off completely and and and and when I do Bible studies I have in my Bible right above chapter 12 of Genesis I put God's New Beginning and God starts over and so God said I've got to have me a man that I can start over my dealings with Mankind and God chose Abraham and Abraham's descendants are going to be God's chosen people and so God calls Abraham and tells him you got to leave and you can't take anybody with you but in verse four Abraham makes a mistake in his new beginning in that he took lot with him where he was going can I have it amen and that was contrary to what God had told them now I don't know why that that that that Abraham took lot with him but maybe it was because he was 75 years old and you know when you get 75 years old you got one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel can I have it amen and I might just add I don't know how old or how young brother anthy is I think he's probably 61 or 62 Hallelujah but I've done a survey i' done a internet search a few months ago and I found out that 75% of the fastest growing churches in America are pastored by men over the age of 55 so don't tell me to move over old man I'm going to tell you young whipper snappers y'all need to catch up can I have an amen to somebody but maybe maybe Abraham's father maybe his brother said look you're 75 years old and you're going to leave your home and you're going to go into a land that nobody knows anything about and and and you got one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel and and you don't have any children and and and and he said look why don't you take lot with you to be your strength let me just tell you this when God calls you to do something you better learn to do it the way God tells you to do it there is no substitute for doing anything outside of God's will somebody said amen I realized that a few years that we have been living that we have felt like that America was going down the tubes and that America was going to to Hell in a hand basket and everything was going wrong but in the last eight or nine or 10 years I have preached constantly that God is going to send an Awakening To America that America is going to have the greatest Revival that we've ever had does anybody remember when gasoline was headed toward $6 a gallon any of y'all remember that that made me mad I got a bunch of poor folks in our church and I don't like to pay $6 a gallon for gas I don't like to pay $5 I don't even like to pay $4 for gas and and and every time I drive up the gas pump and it' be 469 a gallon or 449 a gallon I would my blood would boil and I thought I I believe I can do something about that and so singlehandedly I started praying against the gas prices laugh if you want to you ought to be up here kissing my feet right now I got up in our church and I said in a very short time gasoline is going to be down below $2 a gallon you know what they done the same thing you just done they sit there like a stump because gasoline was going up and they were predicting $6 a
gallon and I said nope God gas is not going to $6 a gallon I forbid it to go to $6 a gallon it's going to go down below $2 a gallon and I said I'm prophesying it right now gasoline is going down to $2 a gallon I said I I curse the hate the greed and the selfishness that's going on that's driving the gasoline Pro and I started cursing the hate and I started cursing the greed and I started cursing the selfishness praise God and and and gasoline took a big jump up again so I got up the pull pit the next night and I said gasoline going down below $2 a gallon I curs the hate I curs the greed I curs the selfishness that's caused the gasoline process to go up and all of a sudden gasoline started EDG and down and it started going down it started going down and I I drove up to Quick Trip a convenience store got out and filled my tank with gas got the receipt $1.79 a gallon can I have it amen and and I I I'm on we're on the internet and we we broadcast our services live around the world from 50 Nations and we have over 6,000 people connected to us on Sunday morning and I got to tell them let me tell you something if you're a prophesy and you'll believe it God will bring it to pass and for the last 10 years I've been preaching there is going to be an outpouring of the Holy Ghost there is going to be a Revival it's not just coming to our churches it's coming to America it's coming to our cities can I have an amen stand up brother the need them praise God you know we talked about a few years ago we had a program called we're going to double in a decade and many of you may remember the Sunday School promotion that we're going to double in a decade and so they had all these programs to double in a decade and I said fooy on that I don't want to double in 10 years I want to double in one Revival and I'm telling you and I'm going to prophesy to you right now this church is going to double in one single Revival I feel the Holy Ghost in This Place we need to get our minds off of running 40 and 50 and 60 and 70 and 80 we you need to say God I want a Revival that we can double in one single Revival you say preacher but we're in Stevens's Arkansas I don't care where you're at there's enough people out these piny Woods that that you can't shake a stick at them praise God I believe that the town that my wife was raised in has only 1100 people that's only about about 200 more than what y'all got here in Stevens and and and it don't have that many now but the church where my wife was raised and and we ran 700 people in a town of only 1,00 don't tell me what God can and can't doall I was raised born and raised in a place called Frogmore Louisiana which is a suburb of Faraday Louisiana and you can't get to Faraday from here and our town had 2500 people and now our church in Faraday runs in excess of 500 people praise God it's not the size of the town it's the size of the preacher in the town it's the size of the child of God in the town Hallelujah I think it's time to start prophesying a little bit and say we're going to double this church our church is going to double in a short time our church is going to have Revival our church is going to grow our church is going to take the city praise God can you say Amen with me please I don't I don't know why Abraham decided to take lot with him I I don't know if he was too old or too decrepit or maybe his wife was bossing made him take him I don't know what the problem was ain't no telling what the problem was but for some reason or another Abraham disobeyed God and let me tell you something once you disobey God one time it's easier to disobey God two times and once you learn to become disobedient it's very difficult to get yourself back on track and learn to believe God let me tell you something you're not too young to make a mistake and you're not too old to make a mistake every one of us in this room needs periods of new beginnings in our life can I have it amen here a few weeks ago I found myself at the altar of
prayer and and you know being the pastor and being cool and you know being the bishop and being important praise God I didn't want people to think I was backslid and so when I went to the altar I went down to the altar to pray for somebody else I just kind of snuck in there and after I prayed for somebody I found me a place where I could crawl up to the altar and and I'm going to be honest with you I had to do some repenting it ain't none of your business what I repenting of I certainly don't want my superintendent to find out one and I found myself not only having to repent but I had to do some correcting and I had to make some changes in my own personal life can I have it amen I'm I'm I'm I'm only 49 years old God I got to repent again Hallelujah that what that Al is far Hallelujah but I shouldn't have to repent at my age I shouldn't have to correct myself at my age I ought to know how to do it I ought to know how to live for God right but let me tell you something I find myself when I need a new beginning I want a new beginning can I have an amen when I need a Praying through I want to praying through you say how well how how often should I get a renewing of the Holy Ghost how often do I need a new beginning you want me tell you how often you need a beginning you want me tell you how often you ought to get a a renewing of the Holy Ghost every time there's a situational change in your life you better pray back through you know if you're a kid if if you're just a child and you get the Holy Ghost as a child as soon as you turn into a juvenile delinquent I mean a juvenile you better pray through because the Holy Ghost had kept you as a child won't keep you as a juvenile and let me tell you something when you turn from a juvenile to a teenager believe me ladies and gentlemen the holy ghost that kept you as a juvenile won't keep you as a teenager you got to get the teenage Holy Ghost and when you finally turn 20 the Holy Ghost goes to retirement home because it takes the strongest Holy Ghost possible to keep you as a teenager can I have it amen and you better get the Holy Ghost all over again when you get to be 20 because you done War the Holy Ghost you had out and when you get turned into a young adult you got to get the Holy Ghost all over again and believe me when you get married let me tell you when you get married you better as soon as you bring your bride through the back door of the church you need to latch on to her say we're going to the altar because the Holy Ghost you think the Holy Ghost is tough on you as a teenager when you get married friend you better really get the Holy Ghost because the holy ghost that kept you as a teenager won't keep you as a married person can I have when you change jobs you better get the Holy Ghost all over again when you spend three weeks in the hospital and you get out of the hospital you got to get the Holy Ghost all over again every time you go through a situational change in your life you got to get the Holy Ghost all over again there's some people sitting on our pews that hasn't prayed through in 25 years and you're still singing like you know Jesus and you hadn't prayed through in so long you don't know how to pray through anymore let me tell you you need to keep the Holy Ghost fresh in your life you need to keep Jesus fresh in your life and believe me when you get called to preach the holy ghost that kept you as a saint won't keep you as a preacher because it takes a double potion of the Holy Ghost to be a preacher are you listening it ain't the singing but you better get a double portion of the Holy Ghost when you get called to preach and then when you go from being an evangelist to being a pastor the the holy ghost that keeps you as an evangelist won't keep you as a pastor it takes the biggest strongest most powerful dose of the Holy Ghost possible to keep you as a pastor Abraham this is your new beginning leave your kin folks leave the country to land I'll show you and he picks up lot and brings with him now if you'll give me just a moment I'm going to share something with you
there's a thing called partial obedience you can do a hundred things right and mix in one thing wrong and you can convince yourself and everybody around you that you're doing all right when in reality you're only partially obedient Saul King Saul God chose Saul to be the king it was God's choice and he told Saul utterly destroy the amalekites I remember what they did when the people of God came out of Egypt and I want them utterly destroyed and Saul went and fought against the amalekites and destroyed the amalekite nation and when Samuel came down Saul came and said I have been obedient to God I have done what God told me to do and Samuel got to listening to the bleeding of the sheep and the loing of The Oxen and the old fuzzy looking man standing there said who's he oh he said that's AAG the king of the malachit and the oxan and the sheep and the and the cattle the people have saved for sacrifice and and and Samuel said Saul when you was little in your own sight I made you the king over my people but you have failed to be obedient to God but he said I have been obedient I destroyed the amalekites I spared The Oxen and the sheep and I spared AAG the king but outside of that I was I was utterly destroyed the amalekites sometimes we can do so many things right and have something wrong in our life and we wonder why we can't have the blessings of God that God desires to give to us ladies and gentlemen God is in the blessing business every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from the father of light with whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning what does that mean that God doesn't change his mind every time he turns around when God blesses you he has to Keep On Blessing you if God ever heals you then all God can do from now on is Keep On Healing you if God blesses you he has to Keep On Blessing you can I have it amen I want the blessings of God a breakthrough blessing in my life because I don't want God to change about me can I have have it amen I know people that nothing ever goes right everything that touch turns into disaster I don't like to be around them for a fact I have a policy that I don't get on the back of a motorcycle with a backslider and I don't want to ride an airplane Jing with somebody that doesn't have the blessing of God on their life I want somebody God's blessing right I want somebody that God got his hand on I have an amen and sometime we wonder how come things don't go right it's because we have learned to be only partially obedient not realizing that partial obedience leads to blindness can I have an amen somebody praise God sometimes partial obedience is no better than no obedience at all can I have an amen when when when when Abraham takes lot with him in verse number seven he says it like this look at verse 7 of chapter 12 and the Lord appeared to Abram and said under thy seed will I give this land and there build he an altar unto the Lord who appeared wait a minute now wait a oh time out all of a sudden Abraham's building altars and and it so help me I've heard people preach that Abraham father Abraham was an altar Builder well hunky dory big deal how many want know why Abraham built that altar well whether you want to know or not I'm going to tell you he build an altar let see if you thises anybody see anything wrong with verse number seven and the Lord appeared to Abram and said under thy seed will I give this land and there build he an altar unto the Lord who appeared it anybody see anything wrong with that verse anybody you see anything wrong with that verse there's something really wrong with this verse in chapter 12 and verse 1 through3 God gives the land to Abraham I'm going to make a great nation out of you and everything is Abraham Abraham Abraham Abraham but in verse seven God leaves Abraham out he said he didn't say the Lord appeared to Abraham said unto you and your seed will I give this land no he
takes Abraham out of the equation and says unto thy seed will I give this land god removes Abraham from the Covenant promise let me tell you something we're too close to going home we're too close to the Rapture we're too close to Jesus splitting the Eastern skies for God to remove me from the Covenant now can I have it amen you're too close to death you're too close to the Rapture you're too close to heaven to let God remove you from the Covenant but when you look at verse number seven Abraham is no longer in the Covenant God has removed him now Abraham immediately understands what God has said Abraham understands that God has just removed him from the Covenant and he built an altar I'd build an altar too you better know I'd build an altar if I thought for one minute that God had forsaken me you you you would have to drag me out of this altar I remember one time I was an evangelist and I was preaching in California and and and we having we was having unbelievable revivals we was having two and 300 people get the Holy Ghost in every Revival and we were doubling and tripling churches everywhere we went and I remember preaching this one Revival and and God poured out the Holy Ghost we had 300 people get the baptism of the Holy Ghost and man I was feeling good about myself and I let some pride get in my spirit I let some arrogancy get in my spirit and you know what I done I went nine months without being able to feel the presence of God I preach revivals in which we had over 200 people get the Holy Ghost and never feel God one time I laid hands on people to get the Holy Ghost and they would get the Holy Ghost and I couldn't feel God one time and I was in a Revival in Riverside California and I the Revival last 15 or 16 weeks it was a very long Revival every night and we'd had over 300 people get the Holy Ghost at Revival and the last night of Revival I I went to my wife and I said I'm going to close the Revival tonight and I told Pastor I said look this is my last night he said you can't stop now we're having people get the Holy Ghost we're baptizing people every night you can't stop now I said I got to I I said I said for fact I'm is to quit preaching and and they looked at me like they thought I'd lost my mind but they didn't understand the hell that I went through for nine months and not be able to feel the presence of God and when I got through preaching that night I crawled up under the piano the big h h a grand piano and I crawled up on that grand piano laid on my face and began to weep and I said God if I can't feel you I can't preach anymore and I'm going home and after about 2 hours on that grand piano they had turned the lights out people had already gone home and I was still on that grand piano of praying and all of a sudden the presence of God touched me again for the first time in N9 months let me tell you something ladies and gentlemen we need God presence more today than we've ever needed him before Abraham knew what happened God had removed him from the Covenant and when he got removed from the Covenant he built an altar Abraham is going to make some great mistakes makes in his early beginning I feel a spirit of Prophecy here God has blessed this church and the blessings of God is on this church but you listen to me the blessings of God the real blessings of God is Not on this church it's on this man this church is going to rise and fall With the blessings that falls on this man you're not listening I said you're not listening I said the blessings of God oh you got blessings in your life all right but many of you are blessed because you got a great man of God many of you are blessed because you got a good church many of you are blessed because of of this family but let me tell you something I want the blessings of God on my life as well as I want them on your life can I have an amen somebody you know when Abraham built that altar when he built that altar an altar is a place of death it's a place of repentance an altar is a place of Correction an altar is a place of consecration can I have an amen now I'm going to preach to everybody here for just a moment anybody remember 911 when I say 911 I'm not talking about September 11 I'm talking about an event that happened in America Two airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center another airplane crashed crashed in the Pentagon another plane crashed in Pennsylvania it was a tragic day in
America and and and you know what when we finally came to terms with what had happened all across this nation people built altar you you know the night the the Twin Towers fell was on Tuesday we had did not a call church we didn't get on ready to announce church but I I came to church Tuesday evening early Tuesday evening and our parking lot was completely full I walked in our building there was no place to sit in our balcony or on our main floor the building was completely packed there were people I'd never seen in the house of God before I walked down the aisle and people was sitting around praying and crying the altars was full people I'd never seen before they were crying and praying and they built altars and and the days and the days ahead watch washingt DC and Philadelphia Chicago St Louis all across America in our cities they built giant platforms and the Muslims and the Buddhists and the the Christians and the Jehovah Witnesses and everybody got together and and and and and it looked like a smage borg of everybody oh they call prayer meetings all across America but you know what in the midst of our Our Calling prayer meetings in America praying not one honky ton was shut down not one porno site closed on the internet not one whouse closes doors not one beard joint closed its doors in other words America learned how to pray but we never learned how to repent and we didn't learn how to correct ourselves it is very dangerous to put these alars in your church unless you understand what these altars are for these altars are a place of Correction these altars are a place of consecration these altars are a place of dedication it is very dang listen ladies and gentlemen it is very dangerous to come to the altar on Sunday night and pray and not correct yourself we got a we used to have a lady come to our church bless her heart she she lacked three bricks having a full load her elevator didn't go all the way the top and every Sunday night she'd come to the Altar and pray and just talk in tongues and and oh she just she would just man she be something and by the time she get back to the door somebody would offend her and she' backslide before she got to the back door I finally got tired of it so I went to Ace Hardware and I bought me one of them semi sledgehammers it wasn't it wasn't 8 PB Sledgehammer one of them four PB sledgehammers with one of the short handles and I said don't I said I'm going to put this Sledgehammer in my pull pit and I said as soon as she come to the Altar and her eyes are closed and her hands are raised I'm going to take that sledgehammer and I'm going to whack her wow my wife said you'll kill her I said I know I will but she'll go to heaven cuz if I if I don't kill her while she got her eyes closed and she's talking in tongue she going to backslide before she get the back door I see people come to the altar on Sunday night and pray and I thought wow they've had a breakthrough but they go back out and never make any changes in their life they don't correct anything in their life they go back to their gossiping they go back to their foul attitude they go back to the bad Spirit can I have ladies and gentlemen it's not a sin to smile that's right it's not a sin to be kind it's not a sin to love people come on now why don't you straighten up your face and put a smile on your face why don't you quit acting like your mother-in-laws come to visit I am sick up to my nostrils with Pentecostals who have a foul smelling Spirit can I have it Amen brother Anthony took us to some barbecue place and and I thought I was getting just a little plate full but they brought out two cows and three pigs on that plate and there's only one way to eat barbecue that's with your hands forget the for folks if you're going to eat a rib put one a hand on on one end of the rib another hand on and put your mouth between it and just suck her down praise God when you get through eating ribs and barbecue and you get in a truck you still smell like bar and there nothing smell worse than used up barbecue got on my hand and and and and I I could still smell like barbecue right now but I went in
the bathroom and I got me some soap and I washed and I soaked and I watch and I had to clean that barbecue smell off of my hands Can I some of us need to remove some of the foul smelling Spirits that's in our lives you need to act like a Christian you need to be like a Christian can I have it amen there's a town that needs saving can I have it amen and they don't need somebody f with hatred and grief and strife can I have an amen I reserve the right to medal and never service praise God it ain't a sin to treat your wife right and it ain't a sin to love your husband God God can I have an amen I had a man tell me one time I said when's the last time you told your wife you loved her he said well we've been married 45 years years and I told her I loved her the night I got married and I ain't never been a liar I don't have to tell her again I said you're super stupid let me tell you something Abraham made a mistake and he knew he made a mistake and he built an altar between Hai and and and and and and bethl and and the the he built the house of God between Hai and bethl one foot the world and one foot in in the church and when he got to pray listen to me now I'm just to preach to you he got to praying but he did not correct himself at the altar he built and too many of us are building altars and we don't correct oursel I have a we have a large prayer room in our church it's very large in fact it's one of the largest rooms in our church and I can always tell when people are right with God because the prayer rooms are filled before church but I can also tell you when people are doing wrong because when you pray and you're doing wrong and you don't correct yourself and you can't feel God when you're doing wrong and when you can't feel God you quit praying and our prayer room listen I travel all across America I travel from Maine to San Diego from Seattle to Miami from Chicago to New Orleans I'm mean I'm in 40 churches a year and I can tell you right now that we have prayerless churches in America we have prayerless United Pentecostal churches in America I go I very s go to a church where they have prayer before church and the reason is that that they built altars but they didn't correct themselves and you can pray all you want to at the altar without correcting yourself and you're not going to feel God and when you don't feel God you're going to quit praying and when you quit praying at the altar the next thing you're going to make a mistake is you're going to find yourself in verse number nine and Abraham journeyed going on towards the South and and you're going to find yourself leaving the Altar and you're going to find yourself leaving the house of God folks when you come to the house of God it ought to be a place where you can feel the sh kind of Glory of God you need to feel the anointing can I have it amen let me just ask you a question to see how spiritual we are the Bible says enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with what with praise can I have it amen how many of you came in this building tonight with a praise on your lips well I don't sing as good as them it ain't no matter how good you can sing everybody praise the same way and the reason we lose our praise is because we didn't correct oursel at the altar of prayer and then eventually you're going to leave and and you'll you'll quit going to church and you'll start missing Church you don't have excuses to miss church you got a softball game you got a wedding you got this you got that you got your in-laws come to town your kin folks that come to town you got to wait on let me tell you something I have kin folks come to town they don't want to come to church I say look there food in the refrigerator and there's a dog in the cage walk the dog at Twi we'll be back when we get home from church can I have it amen because I'd rather meet with Jesus any day of the week than anybody else he left the altar can I have it in and when you can't feel God you'll always leave the Altar and when God's not answering your prayer you'll always leave the altar somebody shout amen and the Bible says as he journeyed going to the South God sent a famine in the land and Abraham went down into Egypt to sojourn for the famine was Grievous the the famine was not designed for you to go to Egypt the famine was designed for
you to turn around and go back to bethl Ruth The Book of Ruth IMC and Naomi was of Bethlehem Judea they was in the House of Bread and the place of praise and that God sent a famine elimac and Naoma looked at everybody else said hey we're some of the rich folks in town I ain't got to put up with this if God's going to send a famine we'll pick our dudes up and we'll go someplace else and you know what when you leave the place you are you're always going to end up in trouble immc dies the two sons die left with two daughter-in-laws and Ruth came back with Naomi Naomi came back a bitter person after the famine was over can I have it amen and and and Naomi got in the room and pulled the curtains in a dark place and wept and was sorrowful and and angry at God but Ruth went out in the field and gleaned and she not only gleaned in the field she had handfuls of purpose then she would glean among the stalks and after a while when she married Boaz she owned the field it's very important to understand that we have to correct oursel and we cannot leave the altar can I have it amen and when he goes down to Egypt I'm almost finished here when he goes down to Egypt he makes the greatest mistake of all he said to Sarah tell Pharaoh you're my sister can I have an amen tell them me my sister and when Pharaoh reached out to take Sarah God smoked pharaoh and found out that Sarah was Abraham's wife and Pharaoh came and saidh have you deceived me and when Abraham realized what he' done he slapped himself upside the head said my god what have I done when you build altars and you don't correct yourself and you leave the Altar and you go on towards the South eventually you're going to affect your entire family and your mistakes I don't have time to talk to you about the grief that I have gone through with husbands that have left the church they get mad been out of shape over something so trivial the first thing you know their wife's gone and their children are gone had a man they were charter members of our church Liv for God for years and years I came to witch our church had gone through three splits in six months we was down to 20 people we didn't have any money it was a bad situation and I was pastoring and trying to build the church up and this man came into my office he said I want you to cash this check and he handed me a check for $211 $211 well I I'd be glad to cash a check but I'm not a bank and and and back then $21 could have been a million cuz I didn't have $211 and I said I'm sorry I can't cash he said why can't the church cash my check I said the church doesn't have any money he got mad and walked out he got angry because the church didn't have $211 to cash his check when all he had done was got his car and went down to the bank that check was drawn on and they had cast it for him but he got mad at the preacher because he couldn't cash a $21 check I'm sorry if I ain't got $21 I can't cash a $21 check if I had $211 I wouldn't have been in my office that day and he got mad and he quit coming to church and his wife quit coming his four children quit coming his grandkids quit coming and I looked around a few days ago at a funeral and most of his family was at this funeral and not one grandchild not one great grandchild not one child not his wife not his family nobody is living for God anymore Abraham started affecting his family through his mistakes and when he started affecting his family he immediately got up and he goes back to Bethel can I have it amen look at Chapter 13 Verse one Abraham went up out of Egypt he and his wife and all that he had and lot went with him lot still there and Abraham was very rich in cattle and silver and gold and he went on his journey from the place South even to bethl under the place where his tent had been at the beginning between bethl and ah back to the place of the altar which he had made there at the first and there Abraham called on when when God God got through with him in Egypt he went back to the altar but this time
he's going to correct himself at the altar the reason the man of God put these altars in this church is for people to correct themselves have a love affair with the altar in the church can I have an amen somebody now watch this look look at watch watch verse five lot also which went with Abraham had flocks herds and Tents and the land was not able to Bear them that they might dwell together for their substance was great so that they could not dwell together there was Strife between Herdman of Abraham's cattle and the Herdman of Lot's cattle and the Canaanite and the perizzite dwelt in the land and Abraham said unto lot let there be no Strife I pray thee between me and thee between thy Herdman and and and and thy Herdman for we be Brethren the whole land is before us separate thyself I pray thee from me th will take the left hand I'll go the right if you go to the right I'll go to the left when you read the story it sounds very reasonable and sensible but it's not Abraham was not a weakling Abraham was a giant of a man he was a wealthy man he was a man of extreme Authority lot was his nephew all he had to do is tell his hergan straighten up your act and that I straightened up lot was a man of authority all he had to do is say straighten up and that straighten up but but Abraham used such a flimsy excuse to get rid of sin in his life he said we all brag about how good Abraham was by being so honorable and giving someone else the First Choice uhh Abraham was looking at for number one he's going to separate from lot one way or the other and he said lot you choose first and he lift up his eyes towards the wellwater plains of Jordan that's where Abraham was supposed to be in but he was so glad to get rid of lot he gave him the best land can I have an amen and you know what as soon as Abraham has corrected himself at the altar of God in the house of God notice what he says I think in verse number nine look at at verse number nine I'm sorry verse number 14 and the Lord said to Abraham after lot was separated from him lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where you are north south east and west now you got a new beginning I command you to look to the north and look to the South and look to the East and look to the West for God is going to give you this County not the city of Stevens God is going to give give you this entire County I'm GNA put something in parenthesis right here now listen to me very carefully this church does not want Revival let me tell you why you let 50 people pray through Sunday in that 50 people that prays through there's going to be people that will qualify for being good deacons or demons whatever how you want to say it there's going to be people qualify to play drums and guitars and pianos and organs and believe it or not brother Anthony I love you very much sir really I do but there's people out there can sing better than you agree and they're liable to pray through and and you know what when they pray through they going to want to sing and they going to want to they want to be deacons they want to be Sunday school teachers and they want to be chorus oh preacher wait a minute we got enough chorus singers platform too crowded now we don't need no more and and know what when they start taking your place they G to start shoving you out praise God and you can always tell where people sit by the width of the groove in the Pew we're narrow-minded but that's the only place we're narrow and I bless God I don't want nobody get this I I own the second row on the outside and I I don't know and somebody's going to get to church before you they going to get your Pew praise God when I when I went to witch we had 21 people and they got finally got to do the singing they got to play the piano they got playing all the music and they enjoyed their little place and we started praying people through they'd freeze people out and run them off because they didn't want nobody taking their place singing praise God nobody no I'm I'm the Deacon around here you can't be a deacon too praise God tell you something you better listen to me open this door to everybody that wants to come whosoever will let them
come and drink the Waters of Life freely there is room in the house of God for everybody listen to me there's room in the house of God for everybody our church our church is is 14% African-American americ we are now 14% Hispanic we're 7% Asian we're 5% mixed race and the rest of us are a bunch of white honkies when we have a Christmas program we got a Filipino group that has to sing We got a Hispanic group that has to sing We got an African-American group that has to perform we got a few white folks that can sing and it takes us two hours to put on a program because we have to be all inclusive and everybody has the same I don't get to preach I don't like that can I have an amen what are you going to do when you have 25 Mexicans show up for church what you going to do when you have 25 African-Americans show up for church what you going to do when you have 25 rich people show up for church can I have it amen open your doors to everybody can I have it amen when Abraham went back to Bethel when he went back to the place of the altar at the beginning he corrected himself and he went to lot and said look you take the good way and I'll take the other way and then after lot separated he said lift up now thine eyes from the place where you are north south east and west for all the land which thou see us to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever anybody see anything wrong with that verse all of a sudden God has put Abraham back in the Covenant but he didn't get back in the Covenant until he corrected himself can I have amen there's no room in the kingdom of God for hatred there's no room in the kingdom of God for jealousy there's no room in the the kingdom of God for Covetous can I have it amen me whosoever will let him come and take of the Waters of Life freely Lord God when I go to the altar make sure that I correct myself because I don't want to be removed from the Covenant of almighty God would you stand with me please father I feel the Holy Ghost In The Name of Jesus the Holy Ghost In The Name of Jesus would you lift your hand and praise God with me right now just lift your hand with me right now and say Lord let me build my altar Lord God let me correct myself at the altars I build Lord Lord God help me oh Lord to find the place of the Altar and correct myself that I may then be blessed of God I want an outpouring of the holy ghost in my life in my children's life in my church's life if you want this church to have Revival lift up your voice right now if your church needs a Revival lift up your voice right now my Lord I feel the Holy Ghost Let's Just Praise the Lord here in just a moment Hallelujah I feel the Holy Ghost very strongly on you right now in the name of Jesus may the blessings of almighty God be upon you right now in the name of Jesus Christ in the name of Jesus Hallelujah let's just lift our voices and praise him right now Hallelujah for fact I'd like for everybody to move out of your pew and I want you to move up around these altars right now I know that tomorrow is the formal dedication of this building I know tomorrow is the formal dedication we're going to dedicate the altars tonight come on I want you to come around these altars these altar benches get us get us close to these altar b as you can and I like you to reach down with one hand and I want you to touch the altar right now and said almighty God these altars were built for me and I pray in the name of Jesus that when I come to the altar in the midst of the house of God that I could correct myself Lord God in the name of Jesus I want to be a part of this new testament Covenant I want to be a part of the kingdom of God I want my church to grow I want my church to have Revival in the name of Jesus Hallelujah in the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus hallelujah hallelujah huah hallelujah amen hallelujah brother
Scripture references as spoken: Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 12:4-5; Genesis 12:7; Genesis 12:9; Genesis 13:1-3; Genesis 13:5-9; Genesis 13:14-15.