That I May Know Him in Love

thr God that's thank the Lord thank the Lord thank the Lord thank the Lord a real real thrill especially since I love working with young people and in fact that's that's part of my heart working with young people I love young people I just wish that I had the time and the opportunity to come and spend a week with you yes sir amen no I didn't mean to preach to you I meant that I wish that I had time that I could come and just stay one week on these on these grounds just to rub shoulders with you talk with you study with you leun with you I really do just a few moments that we will have together today I suppose that it would be this way with every man of God that stood before this beautiful group of young people knowing the value that you will have to the work of God in the future seeing the things that the Holy Ghost has given to you you see I've been preaching now for several years and there well the Holy Ghost gives you certain things you know for your church and things of this nature alone but then every once in a while he gives you a nugget that's not just for somebody else he gives you something for yourself and it's those things that he give to you for yourself that help you in the life of a preacher that he loves them to share with others who are in the same work and there's a lot of things that I have learned in the last few years there's a lot of beautiful things the Holy Ghost has shared with me and talked with me about and they have been so valuable and helping me and and I haven't reached the place I want to be but I'm kind of like the preacher that just preach me is said I want to thank God that I'm not what I used to be and it's the things that the Holy Ghost does for you it's things that God shares with you that help you to be what you want to be for the Lord and really there's a lot lot of things that I'd like to preach to you this morning really there's a lot of things a lot of things I'd like to share but you know that there's no way we could get 25 15 or 10 or even two sermons in the aot of time this morning but I would like to share with you that that I feel on my heart now God has a way of of balancing us all out and one of these times I'm going to preach a sermon on nothing but just call it balances amen sometimes our appetite just like children our appetite calls for ice cream most of the time if you you have any kid brothers and sisters you probably you're too old to remember anything about your own experience at that age but you just shut it out you don't want to REM it if you have a kid brother or sister you probably are aware with me that their appetite no matter what the circumstances would generally cause for ice cream or candy or car Coke you know that's just that's just the way it is and it it takes maturity to even mature the appetite I want you to say that with me right there it takes maturity to even mature the a young people who want ice cream and cake and pie and Coke and candy all the time are not mature enough to really know what they need you have to remember that you're

going to need some teeth down the road to you meet with so you have to have a few things that you didn't really desire and really didn't care for amen maturity does a lot of things for you and I want you to know here today and listen to me as I make just one statement here before I go into start there's a few things that you will desire in life but there's a few things that you will really desire that nothing will purchase for you the time young men who have a great desire to stud the Gospel of Jesus Christ they want to they they want of course they want to start out just full glast full steam ahead and just just burning up the temple but you remember whatever your status quo whatever your position whatever your calling in the great work of God there's a few things that you see others on down the road away from yourself that they possess that you're going to want when you start but a few things only come and you only buy them with time experience is one of the things that only time will B God has a way of giving us exactly what we need he has a way of balancing us out and let me say here today if this thought if this that I feel to bring to you today in fact I have felt it for some time even when brother Holly called me and I accepted this I felt it I tried to stay away from it thinking other channels but I'm brought right back for the same thought I cannot get away from it so here it goes I confess to some of you you will probably hear it as the distant beat of some foreign drum because you will not have ears to hear it you will not be sensitive to pick it up but to somebody today and it may not be but to one but somebody here today will glean something from the word of

the Lord I turn your attention now to Philippians the thir chapter I want to start reading at the seventh verse and follow along with me if you care to but what things were gained to me those I counted lost for Christ yay doubtless and I count all things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but D that I may win Christ let's read from the 10th now that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the Dead not as though I had already attained either were already perfect but I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus I want you to pray this simple prayer God anoint the feeble lips of your servant anoint our ears to hear the word of the Lord and melt our hearts together in your presence would you lift your hand and pray that prayer father anoint the feeble lips of your servant today and I pray God that you would anoint our ears to hear the word of the Lord melt our hearts together in your presence praise God praise

God I want you to turn around and put your Bible on the seat right there where you're fixing to sit down amen now I want you to lift your hand amen I've been I've been just a little bit you know didn't want to scare you half to death I didn't want to come on too strong but it's time for us to get with it now amen amen you know me I'm M you or I size 13 shoes weigh 2 nothing of your business and I have the Holy Ghost and I love Jesus amen amen amen let's warm up just a little bit now amen I don't want to get in no no giddy mood but I do want us to warm up to one another just a little bit okay amen I love you what you stand there don't stay amen amen amen amen it's happening Glory Hallelujah how many if you feel the love of God In This Place Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah Glory Glory Glory Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah PR God I want you to know the Holy Ghost is Flowing like a river right now amen it's flowing like a river Hallelujah one of the most beautiful things in the world is to learn how to be sensitive to the spirit yes sir amen oh God make us sensitive Can You Feel the holy ghost moving right in here right and you know you know one of the greatest ways to let the Holy Ghost move is for there to be a flow of love amen just a little flow of love thank God thank god oh there's so many things I'd like to tell you all today Jesus amen you ready to hear it are you ready to preach now I'm not talking about me I'm talking about you you ready to preach now I'm not going to stand up here and preach for myself you're either going to preach with me or I'm going to sit down you dare me we don't dare me don't dare no hallelujah hallelujah Oh Glory Hallelujah Hallelujah praise God God praise God hallelujah all right say praise the Lord praise the Lord oh hey that sounds good say it one more time oh hallelujah praise God God bless you you may be seated hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah oh what I'm feeling is real hallelujah thank God thank God thank God do you like the Apostle Paul you like to make a study of the Apostle Paul something about him something about his life now if you would I I in order to give a a a kind of kind of get a foundation how do you want me to ask you want me to have another pose I'll do it too whatever you want amen glory don't turn red it's all right I'll pose again right after there okay anybody else want to picture amen hallelujah there's something about the Apostle Paul that that intrigues me it really does it really does the Apostle Paul intrigues me and in order to in order to get the full impact of what is being said you've almost got to know who's doing the writing and some of the attributes and some of the some of the well you got to know a little bit about the writer amen you don't believe it you go

to the mailbox and and see how quick you know if there's no there's no return address or a name there you read that letter but when it comes to something that you kind of hit you in the heart no you don't finish the letter you go see who's doing the right you go see who signed that but because whoever signed it you know makes a whole lot of weight and when I even started talking about that one one of these little ladies he been getting a letter but it does make a difference who's who's doing the writing what's being said it it means a whole lot you know by by looking at the name that wrote it and this is the way I am by the Apostle Paul and there's a lot of things that you perhaps will not blame just simply by by just reading the black and white sometimes you've got to read just a little bit between the lines let your imagination create settings and and situations as to why certain utterances were were made now the Apostle Paul here starts off and and you understand that I that I want to talk to you a little while to kind of set a little stage and then you can you can call it anything you want to teaching Bible study preaching whatever you want to you know sermonette don't matter but you piing to hear a long sermonette but no really I'm not going to preach too long but Paul starts out here and says but what things were gained to me those I counted lost for Christ now that's that's just words until you begin to take a little inventory until you study a little bit who was writing and what he was talking about what things were gained to me those I counted lost now that that'd be that'd be something for you know somebody that's never did really have much ability anyway and talk about nobody never did have anything just just come straight from from nothing to to preaching the gospel and then say that what things were gain to me those are kind of lost that don't mean a whole lot but when you consider the Apostle Paul and what he had access to and what he could have been then for him to say that now he never did go into detail to tell us what he could have been we don't we don't he never did give us an autobiography to let us know the things that he could have been but one of the best ways to determine what Paul could have been before he came to God is just take a look at what he became after he came to God and that'll give you an idea of what he could have been in the other Kingdom amen the Apostle Paul who was not one of the of the chosen ones of the Lord one as he put it born out of du season writing most of the books of the New Testament building more churches than any other Apostle more missionary Journeys and everything else the book of the of the activity in the in the in the New Testament that we all love so much is a result of that one man is writing to churches is the churches that he established in all of this face it the Apostle Paul is one of the greater parts of our heritage in our of the history that we learn how to act and how to do today so for us to look at what he was in this great Kingdom then when he said but what things were gained to me those I counted lost for Christ you know that whatever he wanted to have been he had the ability he could have become that in fact the very fact that he had a letter in his pocket or papers in his pocket on his person going as as the official of the government to kill and destroy people that were that were preaching and loving what you and I preach in love right now let you to know that he was already on his way yeah he already had a great

deal of authority as it was and of course being a young man no doubt the the The Throne official them whatever the title may have been in his particular day it was no doubt well within his grasp amen all right when you consider that he could have been anything he wanted to have been and he had the Zeal and he had the motivation he could have become that and then to hear him say but what things were gained to me those I counted lost for Christ you get the picture that there must have been a great de deal of respect there must have been some kind of a fantastic feeling for this Christ that he had come to know amen he don't stop there goes on Y doubtly and I count all things but lost not just those that I counted gain not just those that I felt I had access to but whatever existed yes that I would never have even had the ability to have claimed whatever the world would have offered I count all things but love glory to God hallu until I count it those things that would gain to me I counted lost for Christ may doubtless I count all things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord oh Hallelujah I have counted everything that I could have ever done everything that could have been possible everything that was not possible but yet it was out there for somebody to get all of those things I counted lost just simply for the beauty of learning about God yes hallelujah hallelujah he didn't just say to gain the knowledge he said the Excellency of the knowledge he put a little Royal flavor to it he his Excellency hallelujah hallelujah brother let me tell you one thing before you ever amount to very much in this Kingdom you're going to have to fall in love with Jesus amen amen amen and if you can't fall in love with him you may as well hang it up now now amen go on back and get you a job and go to the peack amen amen plow a mule or make missile you're in the wrong business if you don't love Jesus Christ right oh my Lord now don't let me get started called it rough I count all things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things the for cry removed from some of the things that we you know have you ever been in a consecration service and and somebody just all in the in the in the excitement of the moment and in the in the humility of the moment they would ask the question how many of you would be willing to give up everything got to keep Jesus and while tears are streaming down our face I've seen people reading I study just for a moment you know and you can see them in their thought they were still holding on to Mama and holding on to Daddy and holding on to little brother and sister and house and finally one by one they let them go and and and they they realized in the in the feet of that moment yeah I I I I got to say I'd be willing to give up everything to and we only speak from this side of the fence trying to ascertain not we would be willing to do it Paul didn't speak from that

side Paul said I have already suffered the law of all things oh God that's the reason his words had such impact what we struggle in our minds to try to be willing to do he had already done it and he said I have already suffered the loss for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dumb brother harle just a while ago you made a You made a statement to me that that it rung a bell to me of your have you ever heard brother Holly made a statement just a while ago about that when he looked back at where he came from what God had done for him what God had given him and he looked back at the world and everything you know and and he said it it brings it brings just a wave of what was the word yeah yeah other words you you just you just simply despised all of that in light of what has happened now I've heard I've heard of people that have that have had this attitude and I've talk to people that have had this attitude you know well you'll have to consider what I gave up to come to the Lord you'll have to consider what I could have been I could have been a lawyer I was studying law books Mercy I was I was on my way I was going to beat somebody and I had a pretty layer of skin over my ugly face and I could have been a movie star had pretty pretty ha my I could have been I a model GL to God whatever it was that Paul could have been he wanted us to know he wanted us to know that there were things that perhaps could have been great gain to him but before he is this he wants to set the record straight he said I don't look back with longing eyes at anything that could have been he said I want you to know whatever I could have been I count lost now but I don't look at them longingly I count it all but D it's nothing to me that I may win Christ that I may win Christ listen to the tone he said first of all what things were gain I counted loss for Christ and he said yeah y thatlet I count all things but for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ and then it's all but done that I may win Christ I got to thinking the other day somewhere some way I've got to get a hold of this thing to where I reach a point of satisfaction I've got to get a hold of this thing to where I know where I stand I've got to I've got to get my place and I've got to know what to happening and and and and I've got to I've got to reach that place of satisfaction and security and and and and from that I've got to know where I stand with God and I realize that these things may be true in a measure but I looked at the Apostle Paul and here he is after the things that he's gone through and he's still talking about the attitude that he possesses want to have the right attitude so that he may

win and I first of all thought my God son if you hadn't won him to now you may as well forgive him but no then the then the attitude that he possessed it came through to me that is the necessary attitude for any child of if we ever get to the place that we feel like we have got it seed up if we ever get to the place that we feel like I've got it made I'm secure I found my position in God and God thinks this of me and I think this of him and it's established and from this time on we'll just kind of walk on along together there Never Comes a Day in your life that you don't have to show him and tell him and with your actions and with your Deeds continually courting him now this is one let let me tell you that are not married before you get married this is one of the greatest problems that some of we pastors have in counseling couples is their lack of communication and appreciation for one another they take one another for granted you don't get mad don't do that he said I'm still you mean Paul after everything you you suffer after everything you've gone through and you're still you mean you're still trying to win Christ H one thing about love it's got to have a log of fuel every once in a while on the Fire it will die to nothing but get burning em if it don't have fuel added to the fire every once in a while Paul found this but I'm still everything I've counted it lost I've given it all up everything everything it's gone and I count it all but gone that I may win Christ you mean you mean the flavor of his talking is that he doesn't really you mean he don't really know him like he wants to know you mean he has not reached that point of satisfaction he has not reached that place of security he has not reached that point where he is concreted and established I guess not for he made the statement I fear L it after I myself have preach to others something would happen to me and I'd wind up in the part of and then we go on the 10th verse and this gives you the reason why that Paul was having the attitude why was counting it all but done why he was giving up everything everything that could have been gain he said I'm trying to know him that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death praise God whatever I have to do whatever Trail I have to walk whatever plight is mine let it be that I may know him in the power of his resurrection and in the fellowship of his suffering praise God praise God Amen I want you to just let the Holy

Ghost soak you right now amen praise God would you hold your right hand up and just love the Lord right now oh nothing could call the Apostle Paul to make such statements and make such utterances except he' be driven by love love is the only thing that could drive him to make such statements and I come to the GI of my message now the basis of it all love nothing no Force no infatuation no simply being an idol worshiper none of these things would cause the Apostle Paul to make statements like we have read in your hearing today the only force that would drive a man to these statements and then to say that I may know him not only in the power of his resurrection but that I may know him in the fellowship of his suffering in other words whatever it was that got a hold of me that day when I was on the road to Damascus that a light knocked me off of the Beast that I was riding and I picked myself up out of the dust and what I tried to see scales were on my eyes and I couldn't see and I didn't know where I was going and something had happened and I began to cry who art thou Lord if there's somebody else if there's another Power that's trying to tell me something are show me something who are you Lord and that voice that came winging its way back and said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest from that moment I've never been the same from that moment I've never been satisfied it kep in my pursuit to know him better the only time I've ever been satisfied with myself is when I tried to find out how to know him better Oh Glory to God I want you to know friend of mine there's something in every one of you if you have a love for Jesus Christ there's something about your existence in your makeup it's so intricately created and and designed by the hand of God that there is no satisfaction that will take the place of your pursuit of knowing him better how they know him since that day I've never been happy I've never been happy except when I was trying to learn more about him I was trying to get more knowledge of him I was trying to learn to know him better and you'll have to confess with me that the Apostle Paul evidently knew what it was to know him in the power of his resurrection and that's the first statement he made that I may know him in the power of his resurrection anybody that was near death by cruel beatings and scourgings as the Apostle Paul was but yet to escape with his life that would in itself was a miracle anybody who was L down over a wall in a basket to escape those that were pursuing him for his blood he had to know what it was to escape by Miracle forces that was the power of Resurrection just

the power Resurrection to see Dale shaking and quaking he had to know him in the power of his resurrection to see men who were who were officials of communities and cities Paul at the preaching of the Gospel the Apostle Paul knew Jesus Christ in the power of his resurrection he knew him he had seen him there he had seen him in the days of shouting he had in the days of revivals he had known him in the days of Miracles he had known him in the days of power and all of this was beautiful but the Apostle Paul love would not let him stop there and that's where I want to get to you young people I beee you today to listen to me you and I have lived to see the day that we have fallen access for fallen air and have gained access to something that we have not given our lives to be here we have not given our Strat and our blood for the great sa to be what it is right now it is not here because of our death because of our of our tears because of our sweat and because of our blood what we have fallen access to or Fallen air to as young people it existed when we got here and we have been born into it and it was beautiful when we fa air to it and I thank God for it but I want you to know something today the thing that you and I love so much and the thing that we hold so beautiful and the Beauties and the glories of the church that we are now a part of and a member of all of this GL all of this beauty all of this power all of the gift of the spirit the operation and the conation and the love of God that THS freely all of these things are not by accident there was a that was paid for it all wish I had time to I don't know what time to brother of you now right you got to see young people of today who look at America in all of and all of her but that's only about the war the the blood the that were made and the moms and dads Roman life because they lost one two three and four and five b to keep this country what it is and then people that have no appreciation in nothing to do with a of where we are they all they' got is a finger of acquisation and all of this well I'm sure you share those same things with me but I'll tell you what I'm talking about our America but those same things hold true about the younger generation and our respect for the church that has grown us for where we are young people I want you to know you and I have been born and we have come to the we have come to this hour at one of the most beautiful times the Church of the Living God has ever known you and I have come to the front in this revival a we have come in this beautiful Revival move praise God and everything is beautiful and Ral are being had now like they hadn't been had in probably 50 years or 40 years and things are beautiful the gift of the spirit some move of the spirit everything is wonderful everything is lovely Everything Is Beautiful but we have been we have become accustomed to his joy and to his thr and to his glory and his resurrection really knowing what it was to pay the price to heaven

in the bill Temple if you want but I'm going to tell you the truth whether you like it or not I realize I'm talking the prob the with May a little BL but mostly the came acoss if we don't Lear that there is another side of faith and if we don't learn that there is a price to pay to have the glory that we have become so accustomed to heav when the set that paid the price for to have it move off the stage if we don't learn how to get it you and I will be left with nothing but memory this is what I'm get iiz sitting right here itn't has as as as come meeting that get it there we can Shout with those we shout for the best of them but when it comes to that day of fasting that wech that around here that's all you've ever known it's something a moving something you don't know anything about paying a p to get it there you do is to walk in the chch and go to sh great it's wonderful and I love to shout as much as anybody and I'm so happy for all of it but I want you to know there is something that has to be paid to have that there hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah praise God God praise God hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah come on Preacher what's the matter you just ain't got it tonight huh felt like having old B sit down and love the world stud of the world come on matter you can't get nothing going what's the matter preacher oh God Deliver Us from the day that we would just only learn the Thrills and the excitement and the Revival and the beauty of it all and forget somebody had to Die the

and had to give and I want to tell you something else young people the things that have purchased and bought the favor of God for this movement up until this hour is that somebody has known how to pray somebody has known how to fast somebody's known how to surveil somebody's known to pay the price and somebody has known how to live holy we had some folks coming to our church and they came to our church and and they came in there and they vised one time and then they left about 6 months later they came back and they bed again and they you know then left again and come back in about 3 months there back and one of the one of the men came up to me and he said what I can't understand he said listen real carefully now he said we we we we've been out of a Catholic church and we've been going there charismatic movement I CH met services and he said we go there and he said we can Fe it whilea were there but he said when we get up and leave and he said just the next day or so get where we can't feed it anymore and finally it's gotten to where we can go to our services and it's not there like like we really want it to be but said the strange thing about it is every time we come to this church it's always here it wasn't wasn't long until they were coming they were right there and then after they've been there a while they've gotten the sense to kind of get rooted and grounded and all this then I began to explain I began to teach some of the things that we must do to please or to win Christ I started speaking along the lines of Holiness don't you ever underestimate the Holiness of this Pentecostal church amen you who just come up in it we who just come up in it we have fallen for all of this we don't really know what it means to have wrong hair we don't really know I'm talking about the girl and sold hair for the boys we don't really know what it means to not wear pants and wear pants suits and and to not wear shorts and and go to movie picture shows and and television sets and all of the ungodly things of this world we really don't know why we don't do all this these things because we have never got the revelation of it all it's all wrapped up in that little one word called Holiness separated unto God know you not that I have separated him that is Godly for myself hly and you know what they wanted to do when I started teaching now they were know and no no I was tried to be as sweet as I kid and and just in the record Wednesday night Bible lessons and things teaching about Holiness and all of this about about getting rid of all that old ungodly Joy you know because God love that that that clean vessel and and God loves it P and and and and about letting the hair grow long for the men I mean for the for the ladies and short for the men you know you you you really can't hard to tell the difference anymore I was riding a a plane one day and and there was a couple sitting in front of me and they were talking very bossly very loud and really you couldn't tell which one was with or if say was both both or what I mean one's voice is picked a little lower than the other and I I assume I never did take that the day but but Jus I don't know what I don't know what supposedly he had said but supposedly he looked back and said yeah but you're a God my lord they're confused themselves on which one tw oh lordus wait a minute I I just just just speaking what God loved and and and all of these

things to you not going to have anything but Holiness and God that Holy Ghost is not going to dwell in a temple that continually pleas it Lord got subit yourself to do the things that God is pleased in that's what Holiness is just simply submitting yourself to live the way God wants you to live and and and AD to the things that God now why he what he I don't know ask when you get but I'm say you do if you want to get there you better do what he wants you to do amen hallelujah I don't know why no nobody else knows why except that he's holy and he wants everything he touches to be holy they they just kind of rose up somebody turn that somebody one of them roll up don't take I don't him telling me where I can go and where I can't go if I want to go to a movie I want to go to a movie if I want to have a television I want to have a television I don't want him to tell me I can't wear pant suits if I want to wear pant suit so that was the reason and I told themselves that they couldn't feel it continually in their C medc movement because they were doing things that grieve the Holy Ghost and God's not going to he's not a glutton for punishment and he's not going to continually come back and continually stay in a grieve condition and an unclean people young people you remember those old times that had those marks of Holiness and they love Holiness and they love God you remember it wasn't just old fism come on now come on I'm preaching to you young people it wasn't that they were just old fogy it wasn't that they just just old County and didn't know no better uh-uh no uh-uh no no no no no never a thousand times no a lot of them were just as wild as they could be they were wild as DS any one of you here today couldn't touch them on being wild but when they got the Holy Ghost they submitted themselves to a life of Holiness and if you want to learn how to keep the presence of God perpetually in your midst if you want to learn how to keep the presence of God perpetually in your soul if you want to learn how to please God somewhere or Another We're going to have to subject ourselves to that whole line of Holiness and Purity and love Hallelujah you let the crowd go that wants the shout but they don't want the pray meeting they want the Rhythm and the music but they don't want the Holiness oh Hallelujah you remember we've got to have it all to keep the presence of God perpetually in our m hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah I may know him I want to know him I want to know in I want know I I I know him in the to of Revival Lord demands of me that I not be so Che that's to stop there love will not be satisfied until it knows the object of its affection in every

conceivable man let me say it again love do not be satisfied until it knows the object of its affection in every conceivable manner