Don't Suffer An Undetected Loss | Rev Mike Wilson

god bless you this evening if you have a bible tonight would you please turn with me to the book of hosea hosea chapter 7. i don't know why they wanted me to preach trendsetters night being so young and all i'm not as old as i look but i'm about twice as old as i feel thank you for allowing us to be here it is an honor to be at the first apostolic church here in maryville tennessee i always enjoy getting to be here i'm blessed when i'm here my pastor preached to us this morning ah my what a word from the lord we heard did you enjoy the word of the lord today give honor to your pastor right now give honor to your pastor in lady sister carpenter first lady whatever you want to call you whatever we call you i just call you sister carpenter myself and uh we just we just love these folks and zach brothers zack said he was a little bit a little bit partial he didn't say a whole lot but he said a little bit but we love brothers access to lauren and and uh their children what what fine young guys they are and uh every time i come here i have sort of an ulterior motive because i get to watch and listen as my son and his wife and the children all four of their children sing in this choir and when i see presley 14 standing in the middle holding up the tenor section you know he's just he's shoring up the tenor section and brady's down on the front and devana and oh by the way devana is married now so i got to be careful about that and our our grandson-in-law brother andrew wow and then uh i'm missing emily wherever emily is see i i looked for her tonight in the choir and i was having a hard time seeing her got new glasses and they're not working very well and i said honey where is emily she said she's right up yonder and she started she knows them all man our grandkids know who they they know i'm the soft touch and they know mimi is but they also know where the money comes from is that okay if i just say that a few minutes and make myself comfortable here i'm not used to preaching in large large crowds oh thank the lord great to be with you tonight hosea chapter 7 verses 8 and 9. hosea chapter 7 and 8. ephraim hath mixed himself among the people ephraim is a cake not turned verse 9 strangers have devoured his strength and he knoweth it not yea gray hairs are here and there upon him yet he knoweth not i thought when pastor got a hold of me wanted me to preach this service i thought i had a a great sermon a great message ready to go and uh it is a good message i won't preach it tonight maybe next maybe next time if i get it next time but i thought that was what i wanted to preach i really wanted to preach that and i've tried to try to argue with the lord a little bit and he always wins by the way amen so i just put that that one message sort of in the on the back burner and i thought about these four words yet he knoweth not gray hairs are here and there upon him yet he knoweth not strangers have devoured his strength and he knoweth it not could i talk to all of us tonight including those in the trendsetters group 50 and above a two-word title undetected losses undetected losses father we need you we need you lord i need you tonight i've asked for your help i do it once again as our hearts would be open ears would be open let the word of the lord go forth in an anointed fashion god use lips of clay that are not worthy to stand before your people but give us a word for this congregation blessed in jesus name and everybody said amen and you may be seated hosea 7 8 and 9 refer to the northern kingdom of israel whose decay was so keenly felt by the prophet hosea this northern kingdom was the kingdom with ten tribes and as such it had started well this northern kingdom had its beginning as a protest on behalf of liberty this northern kingdom had the benedictions of prophets at its birth benedictions being blessings this northern kingdom had elijah and elisha around to inspire it this northern kingdom was cradled in the fairest part of palestine enjoying a freedom to which judah was a stranger the possibilities of such a state seemed almost boundless it had everything going for it if you will yet when hosea wrote his short book toward the end of the old testament he wrote the book while the dream was dying the the dream of the ten tribe kingdom it was dying the possibilities for this northern kingdom had now passed away israel had lost the energy of youth the quick eye and the strong hand that are both signs of youth and vitality were gone and israel was falling into a sad shape of decrepitude it was as if israel were morally see now now the worst thing about all of this was that israel did not know it israel was unconscious of their tremendous drop in morality of all the things that israel had come up against and lost she now suffered the worst of all national losses and these losses were undetected losses listen to the prophet hosea's description of them he said gray hairs were here and there upon him yet he knew it not it's true tonight trendsetters very true that age creeps upon us before we know it all you young folks should just sit quiet i want to hear the trendsetters say amen if that's true it just creeps upon us before we know it i hardly had any gray hair until i was in my early to mid 40s and by the way i had hair then i had enough hair that i could get a perm in if i wanted it it was dark brown i was a handsome dude i'm still handsome but the hair is gone our daughter brook was born in 1987. i had 20 20 vision in 1987 i'm 69 years old by the way i had 20 20 vision when she was born sitting in the waiting room of hospitals for five solid weeks i read everything i could get a hold of i read two or three big charles swindoll the religious things and books about that big biggest encyclopedia i read two or three of them and about about about about halfway through the third one i realized what i wasn't seeing so well so i went to the drugstore and i bought me a pair of cheaters anybody 50 or older got any cheaters yeah you put them on the you put them on here and you wind up with them down here and then i've seen some folks put two pairs on because five dollars a piece is a whole lot cheaper than trifocals right it don't matter how crazy we look we're old enough we're old enough to do what we want to and don't you say nothing about it either i said don't you say nothing about it you young folks because your day is coming i promise you that when you get to be trend setters it probably won't even be any trends huh age creeps on us doesn't it yeah you know you get no somebody said you know you're getting old when your teeth go to the dentist and you get to stay home you start being a trendsetter in your mind to give it give your body commands that your body cannot fulfill why don't you just run up that flight of steps and about two steps in hey let me hold on here let me get me a breath huh anybody done that lately somebody told me that old age and getting old wasn't for sissies but the sad thing about it is you don't ever start you don't even know when it's coming it just starts it just starts i didn't need any glasses now i got bifocals bifocals and i ain't so pleased with them i think i'm going to get my prescription changed and i just had it done a month ago and i'm i'm blessed to have been a musician all of my life almost 12 years old i started playing and i've played so much hammond organ and camp meetings for pastor carpenter and all the rest of the good preachers that preach these big campaigns i can i don't get to do that but but i'll i'll play for them you know i play for them i'll show them try to make them preach good i try to wear them out while they preaching up play that thing get them all fired up i've played brother zach i've played so much hammond organ with a leslie speaker in my left ear i knew i was having hearing problems and my wife knew it too because every time i every time she'd say something i'd say huh so i stopped in monroe georgia the other day and got my ears checked and sure enough sure enough this young guy been a musician all his life he had to have hearing aids yes i said hearing aids plural one for each ear moderate moderate and abu or below uh uh uh hearing loss in my right ear profound hearing loss in my left ear but you know what i don't think i've said hun to my wife but one time since and the reason i hadn't is because she told me when i got my hearing aid she said i don't want to hear you saying hun no more but that's the way age does i said that's the way age does i'm wearing hearing aids in both ears when it comes to these kind of things they just seem to slip up on us amen before we know it before we know it godly virtues the biblical ideals of righteousness things of good report can steal away from us in the dark in the night undetected losses somebody once said i want you to listen to this somebody once said the gods the gods have feet of wool and that which is divine departs on feet of wool meaning that they silently pad away from us before we even know it trendsetters i know we're past the 50 mark i know we're getting there but just because we're a little older now does not mean we can let these things that we have lived right with for for years and years the things that we have believed the things that we've said amen to in church when the preacher preached the things that we have given credence through to through our obedience we cannot let them slip we cannot let them slip trust me on this it is so easy when you get our age to rock back in the pew and say well let the young folks do it let the young singers sing it let the young ushers do it let the young preachers do it but no sir we cannot afford to do that because if we do the things that we have held dear the things that we have loved the doctrines that we have held strongly to they will slip away on feet of wool and they will be undetected losses in our life they silently pad away before we even know they're gone philip the evangelist philip had been with jesus he had walked with jesus he had listened to jesus teach and preach he had seen jesus perform miracles but listen to what saint john chapter 14 verses 8 and 9 says philip saith unto him lord show us the father and it sufficeth us verse 9 jesus said unto him have i been so long time with you and thou hast not known me philip what happened she uh philip forgot he forgot about what he had seen jesus do he let it he let it slip his mind the good things that he had seen jesus do the miracles that he had performed the the teaching that he had heard philip said lord you think you could show us the father what do you mean what do you mean phillip have i been so long time with you and you've already forgotten me undetected losses it makes perfect sense to me that if a man who walked side by side with jesus saw him break bread and put it into into palms of disciples and watch them feed five thousand he he had seen jesus lay his hand on a leper and that leper be cleansed he had seen jesus open blinded eyes perform all kind of miracles he had seen jesus walk on the water he had seen jesus do all kind of good and miraculous things it makes sense to me that if philip could forget him after seeing him do them things in the flesh how much easier it would be for you and i it would be so much easier for you and i to forget what jesus did for us last sunday and they slip away they slip away from us on feet of wall and they are undetected losses he didn't realize who jesus really was at the hands of the philistines samson lost his strength he lost his eyesight and more importantly he lost his relationship with god listen to the words of scripture in judges 16 and 20. he's lying now in the lap of delilah that devious devilish barber had cut off the seven locks of his head and then she speaks up and said the philistines be upon thee samson the philistines be upon the samson and he awoke out of his sleep and he said i will go out as had other times before and shake myself it has worked for me before it has worked for me before i'll go out as at other times i will shake myself and i'll have that same anointing ladies and gentlemen brothers and sisters beware unless you go out as had other times and not have not have what you had last time because of undetected losses sad commentary right here and he whisked not he did not know that the lord was departed from him a man who had taken the gates of a city put him on his shoulders and walked away with them to a mountainside a man who picked up the crusty dusty jaw bone of an ass laying in the sand and with that jawbone he miraculously killed 1 000 men with it a man who was moved upon the bible says the spirit of the lord moved upon samson by times i want you to understand something until god moved on him samson was just another guy you better thank god for the anointing you better thank god for the holy ghost you better thank god for the moving of the spirit of the lord in your life don't go too long don't go too long without feeling the presence of god don't wait don't wait two weeks don't wait three days don't wait from sunday to sunday find you a place of prayer find you a place of dedication and say god i cannot afford i cannot afford to suffer undetected losses i must know for a fact that you are with me yes now and ah forever he wished not that the lord was departed from him undetected losses for the souls in noah's day they were oblivious to the fact that god had put a mark on their heads god had put a mark on their heads but god had told noah my spirit will not always strive or work it will not always strive with man he said i will destroy the world listen to me ladies and gentlemen if god ever says i will i said if god ever says i will he will follow through with his word he's not like humanity i said he's not like humanity i'll be there tomorrow i'll be there tomorrow to help you fill that hole up don't worry about it i'll be there by your side i'll say i'll i'll stand up for you i'll help you i'll help you and then they don't but if god ever says i will you better take that let that you better take that statement to the bank you better take it to heart you better take it and put it in your mind and say i believe you god i believe you god you shut up you said your spirit will not always strive with man it is amazing to me that god has given us over and over time and chance time and chance time and chance time and chance hallelujah but you've got to understand something ladies and gentlemen the word of god is true when it says time and chance it did not say times and chances if you have been afforded a second third fourth 500th 600th 1 000th chance to get right with god you better hear this preacher tonight if god said i will destroy this world by water he's going to make it happen if he said i my spirit will not always strive with man i wouldn't wait another day i wouldn't wait another hour i wouldn't wait another second i'd get up out of my seat and i'd find my way to an altar i'd find my way into a repentant spirit i'd find my way to a watery grave in the name of jesus christ i'd find somebody to pray me through to the holy ghost with the evidence of speaking another tongue the sentence was pronounced their fate was sealed their only escape was to believe and to obey noah's preaching 120 years he preached while he built that was their only escape to believe it and obey it and say when's that heart going to be ready when's that art going to be ready i i i want to make my reservation i want to be there i want to make sure i'm on it hey no no no hey noah look down here look down here you see me see my wife and my children we want to make sure we're on that art you have any you have a target day of finishing because we believe you're preaching you said god's going to destroy this world by water i believe it i want to be ready i want to get on the ark that would have been wonderful had they obeyed but they missed their chance of deliverance they missed their opportunity at deliverance and the bible said not aesop's fables not william shakespeare not the poet lords of europe but the word of god says and they knew not until the flood came and took them all away undetected losses our only escape from this world of iniquity our only escape from the sinful conditions of this world is to believe and obey i said to believe and obey god's biblical commands for our salvation i challenge you to find where anybody ever accepted the lord as their personal savior but i will show you time and time again where they were baptized in the name of jesus the name of the lord the name of the lord jesus i will and i can show you instant after instance in the bible where they receive the baptism of the holy ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues as the spirit of god gave them utterance is there anybody in this vast audience tonight that has been obedient to the plan of salvation as written in the scripture why don't you throw your hand up clap your hands shout hallelujah yes yes yes yes yes just as surely as gray hair slips up on us just as surely as we look in the mirror one morning and it dawns us dawn's on us hey where'd that come from you know the first time you see one you yank it yeah but then it just it snowballs on you it just snowballs on you uh figuratively and literally snowball on you right so balls b-a-l-d-s would you use that what ain't white is loose huh they said never trust a bald ball-headed barber i go to i go to the barber and spend 25 for for a number two guard zip zip zip zip zip zip well give me my money that's what you can do when you get thin like i am but just as surely as these gray hairs slip up on our heads just as surely as we wake up in the morning and wish we could go but our aching muscles and our joints they just won't let you do what you used to do trendsetters we can also find ourselves if we are not very very cautious very careful we can lose our consecration i said we can lose our consecration and not even realize it until you wake up some sunday and you're sitting on the church pew and the holy presence of god is hanging over the congregation like a cloud and everybody's rejoicing everybody's everybody's weeping some are shouting some are dancing and you're the only one in the bunch you're the only one in the bunch standing there with your arms crossed what happened what happened it was an undetected loss i'm of the opinion that nobody backslides overnight is this okay pastor if you're saved today you do not backslide overnight there is a slow life-draining process that happens in our walk with god first we just don't feel it like we used to feel it and then we don't feel anything and then somebody walks past you in the pew on the way to the offer and they accidentally steps your toes steps on your toe and you get angry at them sorry do i need to quit now you get angry at them because they stepped on your toe six months ago six months ago the holy ghost been moving you'd be shouting all over the place you'd be stepping on their toes they'd be stepping on you it didn't matter get an elbow in the chin while somebody's doing the helicopter okay oh don't worry about it i'm good i'm good but now we've lost so much so gradually that we don't even realize what we've lost we don't suspect it surely it's not happening to us but it is but it is but there's an old song that we used to sing at the little church in bethlehem out in the country i must be saved for jesus saves forgive me lord hide all my sins i must be saved for him first comes a loss of desire then we actually start missing church listen it occasionally then it progressively slides downward at a slow rate of course slow rate of speed so undetected is our loss that we will even continue to make our own assertions that everything's all right it's all right oh no no pastor no i'm okay i'm okay you don't have to call me i'll call you don't call me i'll call you i'm okay it's just been a little discouraging here lately gotten into a little bit of a slump here i hadn't felt really like physically hadn't really felt like praying that hadn't really felt like talking to god so just just don't worry about it don't it'll be okay i'm going to come out of this slump i'm preaching to somebody tonight don't worry about me pastor i love jesus i still love him i still love god and i mean to do better all the while more and more church services are being missed more and more excuses are being found it's gotten harder and harder for you to lift your hands while worship's going home oh my feet's hurting and i don't think i can stand up i don't know if i'd be able to give god a sacrifice of praise what are you talking about if yours if you if your feet are hurting and your elbows are hurting and your shoulders and your knees are hurting that's a that's a sacrifice showing up just stand up anyway stand up anyway i'd rather stand up than suffer an undetected loss you didn't hear me i'd rather stand up and clap my hands with a blister on it i'd rather dance with sore feet than to suffer an undetected loss and wind up losing my never dying soul please remain standing i'll stop it's called an undetected loss one day one day the people of noah's day the people in noah's day they woke up one morning to a strange sound the strange sound of water splashing on the roofs of their houses they looked outside saw the dark ominous clouds of rain that were emptying themselves on their front lawns and they knew not until the flood took them all away what's this stuff mama what's what is that stuff following where's all this water coming from what's all this about imagine mama trying to explain disobedience imagine daddy trying to explain his rebellion against a preacher who stood on the on the planks of a boat that he was building for a hundred years imagine that daddy trying to explain to his children it's raining and it's flooding and we're gonna die because of the undetected losses what is it that can turn a man who was chosen to be the first king of israel a man who was a goodly man a man who had king written all over him what is it that could turn that man into a raging maniac who in the end resorted to black magic and witchcraft to try to get in touch with god's man king saul what are you doing at the witch of endor's house i'm trying to hear from god you might as well try you might as well stop trying because if you wouldn't hear his prophet that was called of god you're not going to hear it from a witch you better watch who you're listening to you better watch who you're listening to you better give honor respect and an open ear to the man of god and let god be true and every man a liar what are you doing at the witch of indoor's house i'm trying to hear from god i'm trying to get my life back together well what happened saul i'll tell you i just became jealous i became jealous of a boy wonder a boy wonder who could kill giants that had me cowering in a tent afraid for my life that's what happened when david killed goliath and all those women started making up those crazy songs about me killing thousands and david killing ten thousand sauces i began to slip and before long i was slipping lower and lower and really not even realizing it i can imagine king saul giving his last interview to the local kingdom newspaper if you will and i can hear him saying to the reporter it all happened so quietly that for me it was an undetected loss you want a quote you want to quote sir here's your quote it was an undetected loss i never saw it coming i just i just allowed a little root of bitterness to take root in my heart new testament writer said be sober be vigilant for your adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour he can't do it without our permission so i ask you tonight will you wait until your cry is the same cry of us of an anguishing job who said oh oh that i knew where i might find him is that how it's going to be with you don't let your last interview be like king saul's you don't have to you don't have to go through undetected losses you don't have to why because jesus said lo i am with you always even to the end of the world you don't have to suffer undetected lost young folks you don't have to suffer undetected losses trendsetters because jesus is near you his hand is not shortened then it cannot save neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear he is always available for our cry he's always available for our needs you shouldn't go another day without the lord you should not go another night without the lord because he's as close as the mention of his name he's as close as the mention of his name you don't have to be a loser of any kind you can win no more undetected losses i didn't see that coming bam no no undetected losses you can win i said you can win because thanks be unto god who always causes us to triumph thanks be unto god who always gives us the victory we can win ladies and gentlemen you can win senior saints you can win trendsetters you can win teenagers you can win young adults you can win you don't have to go through undetected losses oh hallelujah hallelujah i believe with all my heart that there will be some miracles that happen in this place tonight pastor as you come i believe that there's going to be some miracles that take place you say hell in the world can you have a prayer line after a message like this i want to tell you something god is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we're even able to ask or think according to the power that worketh in us if you have a need tonight get ready i said if you come here with a knee tonight you get ready oh hallelujah hallelujah i know a miracle working god i said i know a miracle working god i know a miracle-working god some years ago some years ago preaching a revival a little town of tipton indiana a young mother stepped to the front after service during prayer time she had a little little baby in her hands and when she brought the baby forward i could tell instantly that something was what was grossly wrong with this baby's legs and feet twisted and turned inward they were and when she made her way to the front the spirit of the lord touched me and i began to cry i began to weep that mother whispered in my ear she said i'm headed tomorrow i'm taking this baby tomorrow to the orthopedic specialist they've already told me that we're gonna have to put braces on this baby's legs and feet to get them in line to get them right my heart broke and i said sister god's gonna do something here tonight i said i'm going to pray god's going to give you the desires of your heart and i said lord jesus don't let this baby have to go through that ordeal you can take care of it they took that baby to the orthopedist the next day they walked in and the orthopedic doctor looked at that baby's feet and legs and said this child does not need any kind of braces casts or anything he's a healing god he's a healing god years ago sister carpenter i was preaching revival in carlsbad new mexico sitting in the crowd that night i didn't know him i didn't know he was a doctor he was a chiropractic doctor walking down the aisle preaching the spirit of the lord stopped me right in front of him without even knowing what i was doing hardly i said brother that the high blood pressure that you've been suffering i said god's going to take care of that tonight just prayed left come back to church the next night the wife the husband she came to me before church she said you did not know that when my husband came to church tonight his blood pressure was sky high he's had blood pressure problems for years it was sky high she said i checked his blood pressure this morning 120 over 80 god heals god heals pastor i believe god's going to do some things i believe god's going to touch some young people some young teenagers young ladies and young men that are having some problems you've got some physical illnesses you got some things that god's going to touch tonight i believe god's going to work miraculously in this service because you've received the word of god you've received the word of god i love you tonight god bless you is my prayer