Come

The graciousness and the goodness of God, they reach for us. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you thankful? What a great pleasure it is. joy to be in the house of the Lord. God's not finished. God's working. We're okay. We're okay. We're okay. I I do need uh we're going to pray once again before we go to the word.

I want you to understand something. The spirit of the Lord speaks expressly. It is not simple gibberish that makes no sense. It is God's way of communicating with us. We're human and so there are times when things happen, situations transpire in lives, and we're not really sure where did God go. You with me?

But God knows that about us. And he works with us, works in us, through us, to us, for us. The outset of this service today, I was almost certain that indeed there would be a somewhat of a cloud, a finger, an oppression even that our nation is feeling at this moment for right reasons, of course.

So early this morning when I came and sat in my office, I prayed and I said, "Lord, we are not forsaken." And I don't even know how to beg for bread because you are faithful. What I did pray this morning sitting in my office was I rebuke the oppressor and I rebuke the voice of the enemy that's lied to so many.

See the back of the book says we win. It just win is that we're going to talk about. Pray with me. Lord, there is such glory in this room, manifestation and revelation that's in this room today. There are spiritual things happening right now, God, because we have invited your presence here. You invite us to know you, Lord, but you're the perfect gentleman.

You let us invite you and you will move and come. I make myself again available to you, Lord. To those online that are watching, I pray God that you would dispatch an angel to go to them right now. Those in the house today, Lord, I pray that ministering angels would come. Spirit of the Lord work in our midst.

We pray. We have entered into your presence, Jesus, because we are hungry for you. Our only agenda today, Jesus, is you. Because nothing else matters. Before you sit down, I'd wish you'd clap your hands. Lift your voice to the Lord. Come on, somebody tell him how much you love him. I love you, Lord.

Come on, somebody tell him how much you believe in him. I believe in you, Jesus. I trust you, Lord. I honor you, Lord. I honor you today, God of glory. You are great and greatly to be praised. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come.

You are gracious and kind. You're longsuffering. You're patient. You're gentle. You're truth. You're righteous. You're perfect. And we exalt you in this room, Jesus. We lift you up, Lord. Lift us up, Lord, as we lift you up, I pray. Let us rise above fear and doubt and confusion by the word of our testimony by the blood of the lamb, Jesus.

Lift us, Lord, I pray. the name of Jesus. Y'all need to let me pray one more time. Lord, right now I take authority in this room by the Holy Ghost power. I rebuke the enemy, the oppressor. I rebuke him in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, we are children of the most high God.

We are bought by the blood of Jesus. Devil, leave us alone. We rebuke you in this room. We are gaining strength for the hour. We are loving our Lord. We're spending time in his presence. Sweet incense is ascending up to him as we praise and magnify his name. Jesus, be glorified in this room.

Be glorified in this room. Holy Ghost, I pray. Be magnified in this house, Lord. We pray greater, greater, greater in this place, Jesus. Hallelujah to the lamb of God. Oh, somebody shout in Jesus name. Come on in Jesus name. As loud as you can in Jesus name. Let the enemy hear it in Jesus name.

Come on in Jesus name. Push back darkness in Jesus name. Overcome fear in Jesus name. In Jesus name. I am not I am not I refuse to be a cheerleader, but I will be a reminder. God's been so good to you. Maybe. All right, back up. He's been so good to me. Oh, y'all going to make me go old school in a minute cuz you don't know like I know.

Well, now give honor to all of you for being here today. All of our incredible volunteers, staff, everybody that's part of CAC, I honor you and I love you dearly. For those that are plugging in, I'm thankful that God is drawing you. Thankful that the word is right for you, too. Yeah. Amen.

I'm going to say this out of a heart of a pastor. And I want you to understand where I'm at today. I love all of you even if you don't love me back. And I hate the fact that you won't trust your pastor to speak into your life, but you would rather run this race by yourself.

I rebuke that. But that's up to you. That is up to you. If you will let me I can't. If you will let the spirit, it will. I love you anyway. And y'all know who I'm talking to. You know who I'm talking to. I love you anyway. You can sit down if you feel like you need to.

Thank you singers, musicians. Thank you brother Herb. Thanks everybody. Come to God's house. I'll ask you this to begin. I can you think of one good thing that God has done for you this past week? Would you give him praise for it? Would you give him praise for it? I'm asking one thing.

Would you just give him praise for it? Would you just give him praise for it? Come on. Just give him praise for it. One thing, God. Ah, you're you're good to me, Lord. You're good. Yeah. Hallelujah. That's a that's a basic simple reminder that he still moves mountains and he still hears prayers when you pray.

Less we would forget that he is still in control. No matter what the feeling in our earth is, no matter what's going on around us, God is the one that created it all. And God is the one that has the end in sight. It is God. I wish somebody would say, "God, I still trust you for it.

Come on now. We know that if man takes the perfect things of God and and and and changes it and thinks about it and turns it that he's wanting to reflect himself instead of God. Therein is where the mess comes. You understand? Therein is the problem. As as men and women in our world, we've got to understand something.

We are to be reflectors of him, who he is, and what he does. If we ever try to swap those positions, you're only going to try to reflect yourself. And you're the bad one. You're the one that can sin. You're the one that can transgress. You're the ones that can. You know what I'm saying?

That's what the world's going to see. That's good teaching right there. The reason that God is good all the time, y'all said it last week with enthusiasm. Amen. He is God all the time. I'm not here today to rehash last week's message, but it does serve to be spoken again. I wish somebody would shout, "Amen." Amen.

So let it be. In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. His plan was perfect. It was enough, listen to it, to last for thousands and thousands and thousands of years, generations upon generations upon generations. In spite of the issues, in spite of disasters that have arisen, in spite of the messes that humanity can find ourselves in in the middle of the darkest storm, you can still find the voice of God speaking loudly.

this history, this understanding that our world so many times has been pressured and pushed into things because humanity has a way of messing up things. The fact remains is that the world itself would simply blow up if it were left to you and I. It would disintegrate into a cajillion pieces because we understand fallout, failure, messes, and messups.

And for some reason, we're okay with it. In fact, we embrace the fact that we are hurt, we have habits, we have hang-ups, and then we identify with those, and we wonder why we can't perhaps get victory over some things. I I'm here today not to condemn nor to convict anyone. I'm simply telling you that if God gets in your life, things will change.

Period. New creature means new creature. New creature means new creature. Now the fact still remains is that history has repeated itself so many times. I I I don't think that in 2025 we're so smart that we've discovered other ways to do mess up things. Huh? Humanity apparently is designed and made up of certain DNA that we've got the ability to read stories and history books, learn things from them, and then lo and behold, turn right around and do them over.

I It's very intriguing, isn't it? We see the stories that people have have come to rise to a seat of power and position and a system be put into place and establish laws and rules put into power, if you will. And then man begins to try to control other people. And man begins to try to control things with rules and all the stuff they put in place.

And the desire, the desire of humanity is to put into place a way that people could be happy and people could be content. But the fact is is that after certain amount of time, it falls again. You don't believe it? Go to your history books. Read about every empire, every kingdom, every command center that was ever risen.

There's a reason it didn't last. Because when men and women and humanity gets involved in things and they try to establish laws and rules, there is something in the DNA of man that says, "What? I think I'm going to rise up against it. Come on, mom and dad with teenagers in the house.

I think I'm going to rise up against it. I I know more than my mom and dad surely only to find out not. So, some young person that grew through that say amen. But every social system has desired. I'm going to use a word today that all of us probably know and we've heard and maybe even studied.

There's a word out there and it's called utopia. Utopia. Look to your neighbor and say that with emphasis. Utopia was brought into the English dialogue in 1500s. That word utopia. In other religions and past religions, if you will, and even current ones, it is some kind of place in the mind. But every society has wanted to have a place where peace and tranquility could abide and everybody would be happy.

And the definition by by its nature, it's a place of ideal perfection, especially in laws, government, and social conditions. Uh it's impractical scheme for social improvement. In fact, the definition continues and says it's an imaginary and indefinitely remote place. There is no such place as utopia. Well, there is, but it's in Illinois or something like that.

A perfect place, follow this, where humans live. A perfect place where humanity can dwell. I just love everybody. Everybody loves me. I trust you guys. I I honor you. You honor me. I don't have to lock my doors. You don't have to lock your doors. We just all get together. How many remember those days?

maybe from way back yonder that that was when people feared God. There are two contradictory things. They're enemies almost and that is peace, tranquility, and humans. There's something that happens in the mix when the flaws and the flops and the mess ups begin to introduce themselves. Come on. Where there are humans, there are prejudices and there are preferences.

We know this to be true. Why? Because there are no perfect humans that live on planet Earth. None. None. None. Jesus. Now, you and I can both say, "Yeah, but there was one Jesus." "Yeah, and what did Jesus do while he walked on planet Earth?" Again and again and again and again and again and again and over and over and over and over and over.

He would look humanity in the eye and say, "Thus you are wrong about that. You are you are doing this wrong. Look how you're handling that. That's not what that's about. That's not what that means." And he would point to people and say, "Thus is the kingdom of heaven. Thus is the kingdom.

This is the kingdom of heaven, and you're trying to make it this. You're trying to accomplish that. That's not how it works. It happens like this." And the more people fought against it, what happened in that world, somebody say three and a half years or 33 and a half years later, y'all stay with me.

What I think we're looking for doesn't really exist. Stay with me. But it is something that can be titled, and I'll title it this way, a better place, less problems, less stress, less issues, all of that. But the more we look for, anybody here ever been to the doctor and the doctor simply say to you, you know what you need in your life is less doctor bills?

No. Less stress. Why? Because stress does what, man? It's got all kind of stuff that it messes with you. Am I right? Stress, stress, pressure, pressure that pushes you. Stay with me. Our history books reveal so many things about issues. Allow me for a moment if you would ju just to let let me give you one of the stories.

Now, this one you can identify with because it's in your holy book. The book of Exodus 3:9. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come up unto me, is come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Verse 10, come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

Very familiar story. This is about Moses. Moses, listen to me carefully. I know that for 400 years the people have been in a position of bondage. Now they brought themselves there to survive because the drought was going to kill them. And in that this was honorable. This was what needed to happen. And the son or the brother if you will that was sold into slavery is going to be the one that takes care of them and honors them.

But for years then now they have been put under task masters. They have been put under bondage if you will. And now something began to change. Moses would follow God's command because the afflicted of God's people, his afflictions, God said, "There are things that are happening there and I hear their cry." Notice here, if you go in and you continue to read in the book of Exodus, this early part, you're going to find out that God did not simply say, "I'm going to bring them up out from underneath the hand of bondage." That's not what he said in completion.

But what he said was, follow it. I'm going to bring them out of that bondage and oppression and I'm going to take them to a place that flows with milk and honey. There was such a contradiction of this place to that place. Why didn't God just simply say, "I'm going to bring them out and set them free." Why didn't God just say, "I'll get them out of that." Now, God said, "I'm going to bring them from one place, but then I'm going to put them in a place that flows literally with the blessings and the goodness and the things that I can give to them.

I rise to this podium to tell somebody today." What God did not tell them was, "I'm going to bring you out and put you in utopia." But what God did say is, "From where you were, I've got a place better than that. You desire to be released from your oppressor thine. I'm going to take you to a placeh where you can do what I've asked you to do and let the blessings that I have for you be received.

But this story begins to unfold. People come away from the oppressor. Y'all know the story. Moses brings them out. They walk single foul. They sing kumbaya or whatever the Hebrew words would have. They get all down through there walking in single foul. Everybody's having a good time. Somebody might have even introduced a line dance.

I don't know. Whoa. And then they walked on and it what? And then I don't know. I wasn't there for that. They got to the Red Sea. They may have lined up in groups of 13 and 15. I don't know. And begin to walk across on I don't know what it was like.

I know this though. It didn't take long for the enemy to come knocking on their door. And once again, what' they do? You brought us out of that. But did you want us to die out here in the middle? We understood we was going to milk and honey. Why can't we get to the good stuff and the Lord God said by reason I brought you this way?

Because if I'd have brought you the direct path, you'd have never seen my hand work in your life, you'd have never seen Pharaoh and his army get drowned in the waters of the river or the the sea that you didn't even know what was going to happen. If I'd have brought you another way, you would have explained it away.

I come to tell somebody on a Sunday afternoon uh that God is leading you uh but he might be leading you down a path you don't want to be on but I come to declare to somebody I'm going to pick up a foot. I'm going to put down a foot. I'm going to keep walking in the goodness of God.

Why? Because I have seen a better place in Jesus. Uh I might not be in heaven right now but when I get in the word I can look to streets of gold. I can look to walls of Jasper. I can look to the blessings of God. Uh I can look to the foundations whose builders and maker is not man.

God is making a better place. They cried. Y'all know the story. I guess that's what that was. Ready? This is what my little guy does. Brought us out here going to kill us. Brought us out here. We're going to die. Can we not go back to the messes that we were used to?

Why? Because faith and trust issues are generational. Faith and trust issues, they pass one to the other. See, y'all know pastor and my family were on a mission field, and it was so cool to watch faith in action. And it didn't make no sense. But then I had to put myself in a position outside of what they were doing to declare that their faith actually, Brother Don, was probably bigger than mine at that moment.

I I just didn't know how dire and desperate there were. I've told y'all stories, but I'm going to share real quick one of them. Pastor, wife, little girl, little boy. Little girl is probably six. Little boy's two. Baby, you need to go down to the bread shop down on the corner and buy us some bread for breakfast today.

Okay, Daddy, give me the money. I don't have it. Baby, what am I going to do? Daddy, go down to the little shop and buy us a couple pieces of bread, baby. and bring them back so you and your brother can eat. Bailey and the little girl's okay, daddy. She skips out the door because daddy said, "Go down to the little market and buy some bread and bring it home." She's walking, skipping, hopping down the road.

I'm testifying of what I know. And she gets to the little bread. It's just a little shack. Y'all been in Latin countries. It's cool. It's got bread. You don't know what's in it. Don't matter. And she's The lady's up behind there in the counter. And the little girl standing barely look at the counter.

And there's somebody in front of her. She's just waiting. She's going to get her bread and go home. In her mind, she's thinking for sure that this lady's just going to give her some. She don't know. Daddy said, "Go get bread." And she's standing there. As she's standing there, the she hears the the lady tell the man, "That's going to be two pesos to to buy that bread." And she, "Oh, what I'm going to do?

I heard what dad said." And she's standing there waiting her turn in line. And she simply says, "Daddy said I got to come and get bread." And when she looks down on the ground under a wood pallet that they were standing on to get out of the mud, she sees something shiny. And she reaches down standing there and pulls out two pesos and reaches up to the counter, brother Rob, and lays it there as I come to get two pieces of of bread for my family.

Y'all think that's foolish. I don't care what you say. All I know is that little girl went skipping home saying I didn't know how was going. I didn't understand that was going to happen. I see. And my faith would have said, "Baby, take your 100 pesos and go buy you some bread." But her faith said, "Daddy said it.

I'm going to do it. I don't know how it'll turn out. Not sure how it'll work, but when I she got that, you know what? When she turned around and went home, what do you think?" She told her dad, "Hey, Dad, here's bread." Dad simply looked at her, brother Daniel said, "Where'd you get this?

I bought it. Where'd you get the money? It was up under the PL." Of course it was. Why? because my God won't fail us. See, when we get old Lord help, we get under the oppressor. We got people trying to stop us, trying to make us feel bad, and therefore we can turn around so easy and just begin to scream, "Take me back to my mess." Hallelujah.

I got the clock. It's right there. They're very kind to put that up there for some reason. We read in so many accounts throughout the past written history. Oh yeah. People were placed in a tough spot. They fight. They rebel against laws and precepts only to return to the very laws and conditions as before.

Let let me let me paint this for you. Let me show y'all y'all think I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay. We are sitting right now in a building with air conditioned. somewhat. Some of y'all are cold cuz you got sweaters on and you wonder why I'm swe these lights are so hot.

No, they're not. They're LEDs. Anyway, I'm all sweating. Just don't worry about me. If I didn't sweat, I'd pop. It's okay. We got pews or chairs to sit on. We got carpet. We got instruments. We got bathroom with running water. We've got refrigerator. We got all good kind of all kind of good stuff.

But y'all got to recognize something. Some 250 years ago, there was a group of men that gathered up in a room and said, "You know what? We are under the hand of an oppressor. And if we don't rally ourselves and begin to establish some things here, we're going to continue on this side of the water to be under the same oppression that we were on that side of the water.

Therefore, they got together and these wise guys, these smart guys, these intelligent guys, these farmers, these businessmen, they begin to scratch around on paper. And this one cat called John, he said, "You know what? I can write this. And he began to write after what he had learned from his previous teachers. And old Mr.

Hancock began to say, you know what? This is what we're going to do. And this declaration we're going to establish and we're going to make sure that everybody understands that we declare and we make this declaration. We are we have the right to life and to liberty and to the pursuit of happiness.

We're not going to live under the king's rule anymore. The Almighty is on our side. The one that is chief in all things is on our side. Come on. Anybody ever take time to go read the old letters? I had a whole series of Washington letters, John Quincy Adams, John Hank. I had a whole stacks of them and I'd read through them and every one of them said, "By the hand of the almighty God of all creation, I declare this a letter written to somebody else.

It is by the sovereign God himself uh that I am able to simply speak on this matter. I understood through the reading of what they wrote. They understood from whom and from whence came their power and strength. It wasn't about them. It was about following what God was telling them to do. Uh therefore we are now recipients of what they did on that day in July.

I saw y'all forgot the day of independence. July 4th 17th 70. Be it therefore declared we are not going to live under that rule. And when the time comes, listen to it. We will stand, we will fight, and we will defend. Why? Because everything we gave up from coming from there to here, we lost it on ships.

It drowned out in the water. We got here, we literally walked off with our scurvies with all of our sicknesses and diseases. And we begin to dig trenches. We begin to build houses. We didn't know how to do it. I was a shop. I worked in a shop. I was a guy worked in a printing press.

I was a guy that know how I don't know, man. We We got to get this go. If we're going to live, we're going to have to work. Oh God, don't let me get sidetracked. 250 years later. Give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, work, work, work. What? Oh, sorry.

That'll be edited out by somebody. What do you mean we got to work? That's what Dave did. Anybody ever know what it's like to work a hard day's labor, lay on your bed at night, and breathe a sigh of relief? My grandfather taught me that so many thousands of ways. He'd say, "Raymond, you may not ever get paid, but there ain't nothing like the peace of laying on a pillow at night saying, "I did it today.

I worked." And wake up in the morning and say, "Wow, I'm sore." And to remember the hard work. Anybody know hard work that you did the previous day? One time I was shanghide by my grandmother because I she had me dig a ditch. George, you ever been shanghied by somebody? She said, "Baby, if you'll dig this ditch for granny, I'll give you a Yankee dime." And I thought it would be worth a trillion dollars.

You may know what a Yankee dime is. Tim, what's a Yankee dime? It's a kiss on the jaw. I didn't know that. Granny gonna give me a Yankee. Ain't nobody in my family got on Yankee dime. You know, I'm going on eBay. Well, we didn't have any B. I finished come in. Oh, Granny, look, I'm done.

She said, baby, you sure did. You right on the jar. What was that? That's your Yankee D. Boy, I learned very quick when I got home and told my parents, you know, my mom and dad said, "Look what you did for your grandma today." And I felt that awesome responsibility as a 10, nine, 10 year old of doing something that someone valued.

And I knew exactly exactly, brother Rob. I started using that for my with my grandparents. Guys, I'm gonna take this trash out for Yankee Dime. I'm going to shuck this corn for Yankee Dime. God, I wish I wish today I could get another. Uh, our founding fathers taught us what it was like to be in jeopardy and in question, but to simply do put your hand to it.

There's another example that I want to teach you today on humanity. It's found in the New Testament. Somebody say, "I'm thankful for the New Testament." Look at this. Luke 1:30. Fear not, Mary, for thou has found favor with the Lord, with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.

He shall be great. He shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give him give unto him the throne of his father David. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. Bible tells us that Mary found favor with God.

Now Mary, according to history, Mary would have been the very first and the very last to have an encounter with God so personal yet so perfect. The spirit of God itself, the very spirit essence of God established a covenant with humanity and placed his spiritual seed inside of her womb. Listen to me carefully.

This baby was brought into the world by natural causes of childbirth, but it was a spiritual infusion from God stating, "You found favor. Therefore, I'm going to use you to bring my promise to pass." His name shall be called Jehovah has become salvation. Jesus. Somebody would just say the name with me. Jesus.

Come on. Jesus. Jehovah has become salvation after all of the messes, all of the issues, and all the stuff that we read about in our Old Testament author's writings. We now see that the God of all creation one more time established his plan with a broken humanity. And the Messiah was born. Jesus came into a broken world and that was searching for answers that would only take them to ready for it a better place.

We are truly creatures of habit. We are generational from generation to generation. Things come and go. And yet we see so many of the same lessons that we have to learn and then they repeat themselves over and over and over again. So looking for a better place, trying to understand God's plan for humanity.

And then we have all of humanity and the mess and all the junk we bring to it. Here we are in our generation right now, 2025. I'll ask a series of questions to give you some time to think. Where do we go? What is our fate? Where are our answers? Question mark. It seems that our world in which we live today, they are trying to find something that makes sense.

In fact, if I may repeat the words that have already been spoken today, thank you. Our world is crying out. Our system has broken and there appears to be no hope. Little respect for laws, issues between kids and parents, parents and kids. More and more the governing B bodies are trying to help and they're trying to set laws into place only to figure out that the laws to humanity will not work unless humanity submits to the laws.

But the laws that are written, they're not written under a basis of making things better. They are written on a basis to simply change somebody's mind. Stay with me. But the fact simply remains is this is is if if if you are not willing to submit to what the teachers and the instructors and to the things are you're only going to find yourself that you are going to have to put yourself under subjection and submission to someone else.

Therein is where humanity has the greatest problem. As humans we don't want to submit. That's why wives are waring against their husbands. They don't want to submit to the godly authority God's put in their life. Come on. That's why our world system is blown up because men and women have somehow someway they have gotten all confused in the way that God designed it.

I'm not saying one's better than the other. I'm saying both are from God. God didn't make a half sheep and a half cow to do something. God made a male and a female sheep. They go together. Don't confuse. Don't conf Don't let generations come and say, "Well, it really don't matter. You can just choose what you want." Man, you couldn't even choose your birthday cake last year.

What makes you think you're going to choose your future of what kind of sex you are? You getting mad when things don't come together at the job. How you going to handle it when you got to get in a voting booth? I'm just saying humanity is somehow someway repeating its mess. But as pastor of this incredible, wonderful family, church family here, I rise today to this particular podium and I want to bring some answers to the questions that you might have.

If you will allow me a space of time, I think I might be able to help. We read in our holy scripture. We read the Bible that there are reasons and there are answers that make sense to those who will simply submit to those words and those lessons that are being taught. If you really want to understand God, get in his word and then you'll be able to say, "Well, that's God and that's his nature.

Therefore, I submit to it." But when you try to write your own Bible, call it whatever version you want to, all you're going to do is have to give answer to that law that you put down. And if God ain't in it, it ain't going to matter anyhow. Listen to me. I mentioned early that earlier today that Mary was moved on by the spirit of God.

There was a purpose for that really cool story to be in your word. Why? because it has proven so many times over and over and over and over again when you seek the counsel of God and you allow God's plan to work in your life uh even though your life may be messed up and even though you don't know how tomorrow is going to turn out as Mary said to the angel that visited her that day as you have said so let it be I submit myself to what you have said I've come to tell somebody today that if you will submit yourself to the things of God and you will allow yourself uh to be brought under subjection to the word of God.

Uh there will be guidance, direction, there will be wisdom, there will be knowledge. You will understand. I didn't say it'll all be perfect, but I'll tell you this, there ain't nothing like being smack dab in the middle of God. It has been proven so many times in our world. the letters of the New Testament, for an example.

You do you do realize that the Bible was written by men. Tada. That was a trick. I just the Bible was written by men. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Let me sit down here. Let me explain what Jesus said. I don't know how this work. He's telling these things. I don't know what to say about them.

Do you? I mean, somebody even sat down and said, "Let's make a show about it. Let's call it Chose." Yeah, there you go. Sound good. I don't know if it's true or not. I know Hollywood's got a way of putting their imagination to it. And as I have, my wife and I have said often, it could have been that way.

I wasn't there. Some of it I go, "Yeah, that ain't at all what the Bible said." Well, anybody remember Noah? Noah. Wow. That was so Okay, here's the point. Here's the point. We read in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we got these four guys accounts of this wonderful life of Jesus. And every one of them end in defeat.

Come on. If we'd have written that story, woo, you don't even know. Uhhuh. Man, he read up high and he killed everybody and he put everything into place and he did. Watch this for you oldtimes. Watch this. Ready? And then it's about And then when everything was done, then you don't even know how all we do.

Boy, you better not. what I really have said and boy he going and then that's how we would have wrote it but in this writing we read from Matthew Mark Luke John either one of them said and Jesus went to the cross he was betrayed by his friends he hung there they denied him they walked away from him he literally put food in their belly raised the dead to life people would touch him and be completely whole and it was through all of that they still denied him, walked away from him, and hid themselves because they didn't know what to do with what Jesus had done.

So many times, proven over and over again, there are many sitting here today under the sound of my voice, God has been so good to you, you cannot even remember all the miracles that God's done in your life. You can't. I I I can ask this and I'm not going to embarrass anybody.

But I can tell you this, mom and dad, if your children don't know about the miracles that God's done in your life, you're wrong. You better talk about them when you sit down. You better talk about them when you walk in the way. When you rise up, you better tell your children how good God's been to you.

We I never let a day go by that when my kids were small that I didn't tell them. You know, God's good. God's good. God's good. God's good. God's good. How, daddy? I can tell you how he's healed my body. He woke me up this morning. Some of y'all, you asked me to come pray for you.

And I tell you, I don't know. It's a habit of mine. Call it good, bad, or indifferent, whatever. And every time I begin to pray, if I'm in the hospital room praying with you, if I'm somewhere, I'm say, "Lord, the sun came up today." That is a clear reminder your plan still works.

That's a simplest reminder. The sun come I didn't put that sun there, did you? You know what? You're not going to take that sun down from there. It ain't yours. That's a simple reminder of the goodness of God. Listen to me. Listen to me. Things are about to blow apart in just a moment here.

Y'all are half asleep because you're wondering what's going to happen. And all of the letters in the New Testament, all of the pinstrokes, all of the things, what Paul was teaching, what Peter was teaching, what any of these guys were teaching to the body of believers, those who followed Jesus, what they were simply telling them, I need to explain to you how to be a man.

I need to explain to you how to be a saint. I need to explain to you parents how to raise your children. I need for you to understand children how to honor and respect your parents. I and all the letters if you'll go into it doesn't matter Romans, Galatians, the read any of them, they're instructions.

They're trying to help. They're leading and guiding these new churches and they're trying to give them words of wisdom and give them direction and trying to reprove them and trying to approve them, trying to lift them up, trying to get them in the right. Am I right? Anybody ever read the New Testament?

And we find in all of these ways that these authors are simply saying, look to the beloved ones, let me explain something happen. You've had something transpire in your life and now you're trying to come out of the world and come into the church. What you've got to understand is you can't do what you did there and expect to get the same result here.

It's a different God. You were serving yourself out there and all the junk and garbage you could walk yourself into, you would run with both hands lifted in the air, call yourself foolish, sell everything you had, paint yourself up, do anything, let anybody do anything to you, whatever you wanted to do. And that was your God.

But when the grace of Jesus Christ and the blood of Jesus was applied and you begin to walk after Jesus, you got to understand something. You now got to walk under him. You now got to understand it's by the grace of God that there's a future. Come on. The future you had there was called death.

You were not going to make it. But when there's a place called heaven, you're not the one that built that place, but it was Jesus Christ. Y'all still with pastor? That's what these letters were for. To instruct them, to help them, to lead them. They were guidelines. They were encouraging words. They were how to exercise themsel and to find and allow the spirit of God to direct them and to lead them.

Why? Because praying in the spirit is necessary. Letting the Holy Ghost move in your life. You have to. You've got to be able to discern the body. You've got to be able to discern when God's moving in your life. Come on. Allowing the spirit to flow in you. Come on. At whatever path you're on, the spirit of God working in your life, whether you're a businessman, whether you're clocking in, whether you're driving a truck, it doesn't matter.

If you'll allow the spirit, listen, that's how the spirit of God works. Uh it's leading constantly guiding you. Why? Because you came out from under the task masters and now you're under the grace and mercy of God. And he's working in your life. But follow what happens here. Jesus knew that. But he only had 33 and a half years walking in shoe leather on planet Earth.

But when he died on a cross, it was for the purpose to say, "I've got to get out of the way." Y'all going to be yelling my name for the rest of eternity. Y'all going to be wondering where I am forever and forever. Some of y'all going to be mad cuz I'm in Nashville and then get all been out of shape cuz I'm in China.

Some of y'all going to get upset if I'm in Russia or if I'm on the back side of Sudan. You're going to get mad. I I can't do that. I got to get out of the way. I got to get out of I got to get myself out of the way. But what are we going to do without you, Jesus?

I'm going to come and be with you, in you, for you. Why? Because wherever you go, I'll be there. If I'm one man, if I'm still walking in shoe leather, you won't do it. But if you'll go in my name, you'll be able to speak the devils and they'll have to flee. You'll be able to speak to the sick and pray for them and they shall recover.

You'll be able to speak a word into somebody's life and I will stand here in the spirit and say, "Go get them in my name." It's 135, y'all. Okay. He lives in those who will allow him to fill them. He lives in those who will bear his name in baptism. He resides in those who will seek his purpose and his plans.

But something this past week dawned on me. Humans, man, we are so good at messing up stuff. Don't look left or right. Just look right here. At the end of the Bible, we've got in these incredible letters, these so cool accounts. We have a whole bunch of little short writings. John, can't you do it quick?

No. One, two, three. Timothy, listen. Oh, by the way, Timothy, listen again. We This one has always perplexed me. And if it's if it's brought up around the throne room, I may ask Jude, what were you think? How many ver that's all you got? I'm just saying. You can't even give a chapter for him.

Let's go to Jude chapter uh never mind. I could have wrote short stuff. I mean, just saying. Just I'm gonna ask. Hey, Jude. Anyway, back it up. There's this guy name is John. They even after the fact referred to him as the the what? The revator. The revelator. John even says it was I don't even know if I was in the spirit.

I don't know if I was in I don't even know. All I know is this. The spirit says to me, pick up your pen and write write this down. Make sure everybody understands it, John. Okay. That's what he does. Come on. You can go to Revelations and begin to read. So profound and so powerful were the things that he witnessed.

There ain't a soul sitting in here under the sound of my voice that can explain it. And a beast, 10 heads. Seven heads, 10 horns. And a beast with wings. A beast without wings. And a wing kind of thing. and this and the bride and that and the cloak and the blood and the vest and the horse and the other horse and the other horse and the other horse.

Anybody here understand what man mean? You read Revelation like, "Woo, I got it. I got it." And then you thought, "Oh, Lord, I ain't got nothing." Now, I think we can understand it because God will give us discernment and understanding, right? I think there's some things that were written in the word of God that are not yet to understand.

And I'm okay with that. I can't explain mercy. I can't explain grace. It's beyond me how God loves you because I know some of y'all and you say the same about me. I can't explain it. But you know what? I've settled it. It's okay. I wish somebody would repeat last week. Amen. So let it be.

But listen to me carefully. John was describing what he saw. He was ex describing the span and the height and the depth. And he was talking about thrones and angels and beasts and colors and precious stones. Precious stones as if they were quarters. Oh man, how in the world can you make a foundation out of a stone?

A gate of a a what? A gate of a pearl. Now hold on. I know the pearls my great grandma used to wear. They were about that big. They was probably plastic. I don't know. And in my mind, I'm sitting here going, "Okay, Hollywood, where you at? Let me create a picture, an image of a gate." But to have a gate in the middle of one pearl, I I still wonder what that thing looked like that grew it.

Don't that start with a grain of sand? Oh, y'all going to get me to talking now. And the eons of time, God prepared that for this place called heaven. And this is what John's writing about. Precious stones, gold, perfect. Not utopia because utopia simply tries to get you to a place where there's no rules, no regulations, and you can live like you want to.

But that's not what heaven's going to be like. Heaven is has a distinct distinct purpose, and that is for those who have given themselves to him. I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am you can be also. Listen to this. Revelation, y'all ready for it? Chapter 7 verse 13.

One of the elders answered saying unto me. What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said unto him, "Sir, thou knowest." He said to me, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the lamb.

Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. And he that siteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, neither shall the sunlight on them, nor any heat. For the lamb which is the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of water.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. John, what are you doing? John writes in these these verse in this in this this account. I don't know if I was in the spirit or I don't know. But what I see is that there's these elders there around me and I'm asking them questions.

And one of the the elders answer said to me, "What are these that are robed?" And I don't know. I said unto him, "Sir, you know." And he said, "Okay, these are those who went through it for me. I washed them. I put my name on them and I gave them purpose on earth.

He even refers to great tribulation. But now they are washed. I see this in the words something happens because now the lamb has put his name upon them. Brother Don, would you come? And he's in the midst of them. He's feeding them. He's taking care of them. Fountains of waters are rushing and moving and there's no sorrow because he's wiped the tears from their eyes.

And John again is trying to as a human understand what's happening. And he's trying his best to take the image and declare it. Made righteous by his words and by his laws. As I stand here today, I want to share with you something else that's in that same account of John the Revelator.

The last, if you will, chapter in what's called your Holy Bible, chapter 22, verse 16. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root, the offspring of David, the bride and morning star, the spirit, and the bride say, "Come." And let him that heareth say, "Come." And let him that is a thirst come.

Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written of in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book.

But verse 20, notice the writing here. John says this, "He which testifith these things saith, Surely I come quickly, so let it be." Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. The final amen. In light of events happening in our world and in in the spiritual oppression that you feel in the climate of of jobs.

I I read just as you probably read it too. People are losing their jobs because of this decis the divisive things. People have lost their jobs because they said things at a water fountain or they texted things that was inappropriate and the bosses are saying we can't do that and they're losing jobs.

one company released hundreds of employees because they got on a chat about this particular event and they were rejoicing in it and the owner the CEO said not so and you lost your job and they're sitting at home now wondering what just happened and I'm looking at this brother Daniel and I'm like Lord what is going on in our world what is happening in our culture in our societ society.

We have world leaders now from different parts of the world that are saying we'll not be a part of that. That moment of silence will not do that in our chamber house. Do that on your side of the lake. We're not doing it here. Now, I I have to be cautious just like you.

I know how the media works. The media hypes things up. I sad to say in a few days this story will fade and something else will be up. something else will come to the headlines. Another event's going to transpire. I just hope and I just pray that somehow someway through it all that the church doesn't lose its way.

So, this is what I've come today to declare. Earlier in this service, we felt the glory in the presence of God and things have gotten quiet here. Things have kind of settled down. And I look at that and I say, "God, where are you?" And the Lord's saying, "I'm exactly where I want to be.

Preacher, I need you to preach." What needs to echo in this generation now more than ever before is the words that John gave to us. Come, Lord Jesus. Even so, come. We're not going to get sidetracked with what's going on and what we cannot explain, but we're going to say, "Come." Even so, come.

We're going to make sure that we understand that the world around us has a way to get out of this mess, and it is through the blood of Jesus. Therefore, as a church body, we're going to say, "Come, Lord Jesus. Come." We're not going to get distracted and try to figure things out and do rock paper scissors who's in char.

We're not doing that. We're simply saying, "Come, come, Lord Jesus. Come, come, Lord Jesus. Come." Why is it important that the church does that? Because as I described to you, when Moses was sent into Pharaoh's, the reason that he went into that throne room was because God said, "I hear a cry coming up from the people, and it is now time to move in that situation and go in there and tell them, let my people go." I've come to declare to somebody, you can't expect for this world to last forever.

It was never intended that way. It was never written that way. It was never the plan of God that way. God established it. This is who I am. This is what I do. I step into chaos. And I put things in order, but it ain't going to stay like this forever. It's going to be messy.

It's going to be ugly. And people are going to hurt one another. Problems and issues are going to come. Things are going to transpire. And I declare to you that every generation is going to finally arrive to a position and they're going to say, "Even so, uh, come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus." Why do we declare that?

Because he is the only answer. He is the only answer. If you'll declare it in your home, you can declare it on your job. You can declare it on the mountain. You can declare it in a palace. Why? Come. Lord Jesus, come. Some of you might be wondering and worried uh is that the rapture he's talking about what difference does it make?

All I know is this uh in the spirit uh that what John is talking about in that day is simply this. If you get Jesus on the scene, everything will change. So I declare here at CAC, come Lord Jesus, come. If you want to split the sky, take me home, so be it.

I'm going with you. But if not, it's Sunday and I'm asking you to come. If you walk in and out of these aisles, you can fill people with the Holy Ghost. People can be healed. Lives can be changed. Answers can come to people if they will simply decide, you know what? I believe and I submit to what you've said.

Come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. Come. Come Lord Jesus. Come. Every one of us got to understand something. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, we understand that heaven to be the celestials. But when Jesus came on earth, thus is the kingdom of heaven.

Such is the kingdom of heaven. This is how heaven's going to work. This is those who's going to go to heaven. And as he began to declare things, he was not simply speaking of the celestials, but he was speaking of a place that he prepared. So I come today and I'm going to tell somebody if you'll listen, our prayer as a church needs to be, God, don't remove us from this, but come, come.

Let the spirit say, come. Let he that is a thirst say come. Let he that is hungry say come. Let he that is in distress say come. Let he that is ill oppressed say come. Why? Because if we'll ever get Jesus on the scene, everything will change. You can be in the midst of your greatest trial of your life and speak the name Jesus and he can show up right there in the middle of He's not afraid of your mess, your habit, your junk, your He's not afraid of that.

He's simply saying if you want me to, I'll come to you. But I need you to say, "Come, Jesus. Come, Jesus. Come. Come, Jesus. Help me to get my mind and my thoughts off of what I want, what what my messes are on earth. And help me, God, to reach to you. Come, Lord Jesus.

Lord, if you so choose, Lord, if it's your choice and today you desire to bless your church, your group of believers, your followers, your disciples, those that have been bought with the price, those who have gone down in watery grave and baptism, those who have come up in new life, those who have been filled by the precious, wonderful gift, the Holy Ghost.

Lord, if you decide today that you want to come and have the marriage supper of the lamb, come, come, come. If it's not today, Jesus, would you still come and be with us? Would you come? Would you come? You have proven, Lord, thousands and thousands of times through all of the generations that if people will call on you, you will move heaven and earth to get to them.

You will push back water, you will bring to life the dead. You will drop food from heaven. You can do so many things. I close with this. It's 152. I am convinced in this dark moment in our history that it will not go down as the worst moment in history. Believe me, there have been so many darker other things that have happened in our world.

And I hate to say it, but it's true. But there is one thing that has already been written. It's already been established. It's already been described. And it will not change, nor be erased, nor be altered. But it is written, those who are redeemed by the blood of the lamb will be brought to him.

And with the elders, we will take the prize that we might have won, that we worked for our whole life, and we will cast them before the Lord. And we will declare, "Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name. I've been redeemed by the blood, Jesus. Worthy is your name.

Thank you, Lord, for bringing me home. The only reason I'm here is because of your name. It's your name, Jesus. And the song that we will sing, no angel could speak, no angelic could mention it because it is only the redeemed that could sing. Come Jesus, would you come? This altar is open right now for those who want to make sure that your call and election is sure.

If you don't have the Holy Ghost, he can fill you today. If you've not been baptized in his name in water, you can be baptized today. If you're not sure of what tomorrow brings, you can be sure today because if you've got Jesus, I said, "If you've got Jesus, come Lord Jesus, come." Through all of time, there have been confused people.

There have been societies and cultures that have come and gone. But your word is settled. It's forever. Come on. Anybody hungry for him? Is there anybody hungry for Jesus? Come Lord Jesus. Let the spirit and the bride say, "Come Lord Jesus. Jesus. Would you come?" Cuz if you're here, everything changes. Oh, come on.

There needs to be worshiping in this place today. There needs to be worshiping at the altar today. You are faithful. You are faithful. When the people of God begin to cry for God, he will appear. When the children of Israel cried, salvation came. Huh. The people of God cried for Messiah. He came.

Come on. Is there anybody ready for heaven? Ready to make heaven your home? Come on, somebody. Come, Lord Jesus. Come. Don't let me forget that cry. I need you, Jesus. Oh, come on, somebody. Make it a heart's cry. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Jesus, Jesus. If you're not ready, you better get ready.

Come on. If you're not able to cry that, "Come Jesus." If you're afraid because of you might face the judgments of God, come on Lord, come Jesus. Come Jesus. I'm okay. I'm going to trust you, Lord. My name is written. I'm not changing your word. I'm not altering your word. My name is still written there.

I didn't add to it or take away from it, Lord. My name is still there. Come on, somebody. This world's not your home. You're just passing through it. Is there anybody hungry for him? Come, Lord Jesus, come. Come on. Oh, all the stuff going on in the world, the church better start crying out.

Come, Lord Jesus, come. come to our world. You could come and change things. You could Jesus. Hey, yeah. Come on, somebody call on him. Jesus, come. Jesus, would you come? Come, Lord Jesus, would you come? Lord Jesus, would you come? That's right. That's right. That's right. Mom and dad, get a hold of your kids.

They need to make it. They They need to know it's real. Husbands, wives, come on. Bind together in the spirit. Lord, I believe. I believe everything in your word is right. I believe if I call on you, Lord, that you will hear. You can answer. You can move. You can do things in my world.

Come, Lord Jesus. Oh, the people of Jesus cry out. He will show up. Yeah. Yeah. Come Lord Jesus, come. Oh, come on. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Come on. Don't mask it with an emotion. Mask. Cover it right now in the blood. Jesus, I need you. I believe your word is right.

I believe it's settled. I believe it's secure. I trust it. Lord, you can rest assured that everything in the world that's going on is going to bring you to the place to where the bride of Christ to where the bride of Christ will meet with the groom. Come, Lord Jesus, would you come?

Come on. Our lamps burning bright, waiting on the bridegroom. Come on. Our lamps burning bright. Oil filled up. Come on. We're We trim the wicks. We're ready for them. We're ready for them. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Come on. Pray. Break through the fear and the question of the day.

Break out interest, praise, and adoration to the one who's going to take you out of here one day. Come on, somebody. Jesus, would you come? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Come on, somebody believe in him. Lord, I trust you. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Come.

I got to be ready. I've got to be ready. I've got to be ready. The name of Jesus. Jesus. Yes, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, come on somebody. Come Jesus, come. Come, Jesus, come. Come, Jesus, come. We've been waiting so long. Come, come Jesus, come. Come Jesus, come. Jesus, Jesus. Oh Jesus. It's interesting.

The word of the Lord begins in the beginning, God created. And through the eons of time and generations and years and hundreds and thousands of years, the writers would write and prophesy about and whole generations would come and die. man, systems and plans and policies and procedures and laws would rise and then they'd fall.

And through all of that, it's interesting that in then that same book, whoever authorized the connection, the canonizing if you will, of putting each of these in place, guys, h how are we going to end this? That's a fair question. How are we going to end this? I mean, y'all y'all may know all that.

I'm I'm still reading and studying and trying to figure that. And I can only imagine that think tank. Oh, let's see. Um, no. Um, hey, let No, that won't that won't work either. Kill them. No, no, we don't want to. No. Hellm, not going to. Let's end it the way it was intended.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And everything that transpired, he went and prepared a place and said, "For those who will look to him, come Lord Jesus. Come, he will complete it and finish it." So for those of us who want to consider preerttrib midtrip, post-trib, and we getting caught up into Daniel's stuff, and we get caught up into John's stuff, and we're trying to understand this because I think I think there's reason.

I think there's purpose. I think it means stuff. I do. And I'm figuring out things, and I'm like, "Wow, that is so cool. How in the world did I miss it?" And the spirit's revealing it. I'm convinced that we are living in an age that the word of God now is more important than it's ever been, ever.

And if you're denying yourself the knowledge of knowing the word of God, you are going to miss things as they happen. And if you're going to wait for pastor to say to you, "This is what happened and this is how it is," you're going to miss some things that God wants to do in your life.

I'm convinced today that when the church cries, "Come, he will show up and he will move. He will make his presence known to us." And there will come a time then through call it tribulation if you want. How many of us are hungry for tribulation? Only if it were a meat dish, right?

None of us want that. But all of us must understand that time does not permit to talk of the death of a Peter or the death of a John or the death of an Andrew or the death of these guys that simply were trying to propagate. Tell people about his love. Grab somebody close to you, would you?

family, fathers, husbands, dads, you need to be a strong voice in your family in this hour. You need to be a very strong voice in your family in this hour. Come on. Don't let society diminish you and make you small, Dad. They're going to look to you. Dad, what are we going to do?

I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going to serve the Lord. You, Dad, you need to husbands, you need to be that. So, we're going to pray for that. Lord, today in this place before we go home, we're going to come to you in faith, believing that the revival that we seek for, Lord, is going to come because it is your kingdom.

You desire, Lord, to fill people with your spirit and to to write your name on their heart and have their names written in the lamb's book. That is your desire. But today, God, we thirst and hunger for you. I pray for every man in this room. I pray, Lord, for every man in this room that they would be hungry to lead their families, Lord, the way you would lead them.

I pray Lord a desire and a passion would overshadow them God that they would run and hunger for you Lord to move in their homes and in their families. I bless your name today Lord. I pray for every wife, every mother in this room today that you would honor their faith to pray for their husbands and the the men in their life, Lord, that you would lead them.

I plead the blood of Jesus over our church family. Let us grow and prosper in the Holy Ghost. Lord, I'm believing you in this hour, God, that you're going to make a way, Lord, where there are things that don't mean anything, there are things that are missing, you're going to be the link, Lord, that connects it all together, Jesus.

Come on, Lord. We are praying you would come. We are asking you, Jesus, come, Lord Jesus, come. Come, Lord Jesus, come. We're going to submit to the word. We're going to submit to the word that you've given us. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Oh Jesus, come Lord Jesus come. We trust you for it, Jesus.

We believe you for it, Lord. We honor you for it, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I worship you, Lord. Oh, great God. Are you hungry for the Lord? Are you hungry and thirsty for him? I love y'all. Thank you for being in the house of the Lord today. Let's pray our prayer of blessing over over each other.

Can we do that? Anybody remember it? It's in the book of Numbers chapter verse. Is that it? Can everybody read that? The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. They shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.

I love y'all. Shake hands, be friendly, greet one another. Don't forget all the cool announcements for the week. Have a great great week in God.