Rev. Wayne Huntley "It's Better to be Miserably Saved, Than to be Comfortably Lost"

and everyone said praise the Lord what a joy to be in the house of the Lord with the people of God today I've been filled with the Holy Ghost since I was 13 years old and I have never ever gotten tired of being in church I love church I still rejoice

I was glad when they said unto me let us go have you ever thought that that verse is probably one of the oldest missionary verses in the Bible it's one of the greatest soul-winning verses in the Bible because somewhere there was a they I was glad when they said let us go to the house of the Lord there had to be a vein that came by and say hey let's go to church aren't you glad you had Ave in your life somebody came by and said let's go to church

I view our city in Raleigh North Carolina with great distress and disgust because on Monday through Friday the traffic is jammed our churches near the downtown area and you can't you can't when I go the airport to fly somewhere to preach I can't hardly get through the city but then on Sunday it looks like somebody ordered an evacuation the city is just clear I mean the roads are just clear and I'm just glad that I have and somewhere the Lord blessed me with a something that is intangible and really can't be totally defined but I'm so glad that somewhere I got a desire to go to the house of the Lord

you know the old-timers years ago when we had testimony service almost every testimony started out with I'm glad he gave me a desire and you don't hardly hear that anymore but I'm telling you're gonna have to have a desire to make it what a great group of people you are what a wonderful opportunity to share the word of the Lord with you and I was speaking with brother Gaddy as we approach the platform this morning

what is a conference message what is a Sunday night message what is a Sunday morning messages and I've been taught all along I've had me into asked me after all these years of preaching do you have a favorite message that you like to preach well I can tell you my favorite one is the right one that's that's the only one it's the right one the right message at the right time the greatest message that someone may consider someone has preached is ineffective and is void if it's not preached at the right time

how many of you as Bishop Odom said have been saved by the preaching of the word a right message came at the right time made all the difference in your world I thank God for it so I'm just going to preach what I I want to address and when I first started preaching I wanted to be an inspirational preacher I still AM an inspirational preacher I understand where I'm at and I know who I am and what I am I am an inspirational preacher but later all and I wanted to become an informational preacher and that was to add some meat to what I was saying

so I started out inspirational I hope I've moved to informational and now in the latter part of my ministry my seasoned years when you're called Bishop I tell it everywhere I go all my friends are now bishops and in the event that you don't know what a bishop is that's a politically clichy asked a correct kind of way of saying oh man when they start calling you a bishop they're just being nice and polite and referencing the color of your hair and either years but now my passion has moved from being inspirational informational

now I want to be transformational I want the word of the Lord to make a difference to transform someone's life and so I don't know that this is a conference a message but it's what I feel for this morning and so let's look at Luke chapter 16 I love this

music I love the worship I love the respect for the ministry and I also love something I think it's somewhat Q your brother Gaddy travels extensively we're in a lot of meetings this is your conference we I was in a comment we were to conference together last week I'll be in a camp meeting now I want you to feel sorry for me I'm pulling for some sympathy here the cross gets heavy sometimes and we have to carry that cross with dignity

next week I'm preaching a camp meeting in Hawaii pray Church it's a heavy cross I'm telling you it's a burden that you have to carry I mean this thing gets rough and I'm trying to carry my up cross with dignity and I'll be in Hawaii next week preaching the gospel the week after that I'll be in Minnesota to camp meeting so this is just a week of camp and it's a way we live and what a blessing it is but I said that to say this I want to commend these men once go ahead sit down I know you're not as young as I am I want to respect my elders that are here you know

I want to commend these men because in my traveling of the Apostolic Church computerization modern technology is stealing something from the church and I'm gonna tell you what it is it is the memorization of the scripture the younger generation ministers that I see across American I'm not being critical I'm just being observing they do not have the word of the Lord in their minds and hearts where they can quote it and

there is a power in having that word where you can quote it where it's alive in you I want to come in every one of these men quoted scripture today and I was impressed by that that's great I commend them for that but that love for the word

now all you got to do is act like you're quoting kind of look down there's a monitor down there and you quote the whole Bible you know it's just it's right there and I want to commend them for that

I think the Apostolic Church is in need of one thing severely right now and that is not just revival but re Bible we need a revival we need a returning to the Word of God and and the preaching of the word three jokes and a good sermon illustration ain't gonna get the job done we need the preaching of the word of the Lord there's power in that anointed preached word so I commend these men for that

and brother yeah he does an excellent job of presenting the word of the Lord and I commend him and I will say he's a little older than I thought he was last week I found out how old he is he told it in a message so he said look he's holding up real good he's holding up real good and I commend him for that and sometimes you become a district superintendent you can age quickly

I've always enjoyed watching pictures of a man when it becomes president and what he looks like when he leaves office you need to give attention to that man time they leave the office they look like their own grandpa because every minute of their life is structured and and we just don't understand that pressure

so I'm thrilled to be able to bring you the Word of the Lord today and I want to turn to Luke chapter 16 and read verse 19 starting with verse number 19 Luke chapter 16 thank you as you stay in respect of the word Luke 16 and 19 a passage of Scripture that we don't preach much anymore we don't deal with it much anymore and I'm not going to go where you might would think that I will be going and but I will say this so this contains the story of of the rich man in hell

I really do believe that we need to pray as ministers and we need to pray as a church that God would revisit our passion our vision and our revelation and somebody needs to come back and start preaching on hell it is absent from our pulpits I'm not just talking about denominational world I'm talking about the Apostolic world we don't preach much about hail anymore and because of that people are committing suicide and thinking that they're getting out of this world going to a better place because they have no reality of Hell

I think that whenever we understand the Eternity aspect of the Bible it will motivate us and put a fear of God in us to help us live better for the Lord Luke chapter 16 19

there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen fared sumptuously every day I'm not mean to be critical but I just wanna be a little cynical if you'll excuse me that sounds like a TV preacher to me he was a rich man clothed in purple some of those suits those guys we're clothed in purple fine linen fared sumptuously every day sounds like a TV preacher to me thank you for that

and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table moreover the dogs came and licked his sores and it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom the rich man also died and was buried and in hell he the rich man lift up his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom and he cried and said

father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame and I will preach from verse 25 not lengthily this morning as the Lord would empower me but Abraham said son remember that thou in thy lifetime receive us thy good things and likewise lazarus evil things but now if I say now he is comforted in thou art tormented

I want to preach a few minutes on the subject with this thought in mind that Paul told Timothy in first Timothy four and six if you'll put the Brethren in remembrance you'll be a good minister sometimes we want preachers to reveal but sometimes they need to remind and Paul said if you'll just remind them then you will be categorized as a good preacher I want to be a good preacher so I want to remind you of some basic things this morning

my title it is better to be miserably saved than to be comfortably lost it is better to be miserably saved than to be comfortably lost would you put your Bible down and give the good the good Lord a great hand clap because he brought salvation into your life I wonder how many can rejoice today because you are say Jesus you may be seated

jesus told his disciples don't rejoice because the demons are subject to you don't rejoice because you're having all these great effects and powerful results he said I want you to rejoice not because of what you're doing but rejoice about what I've done to much of the appleís I'm going at it now too much in the Apostolic Church is rejoicing over what we do and it's wonderful what we're empowered to do but

our true joy should never be based on what we do it should be based on what he did because I can do something you can't do I will write your name in the Lamb's Book of Life you need to rejoice not because of what you're doing but rejoice because of what he's done and that is he has saved my soul clap your hands if you're just glad to be saved I want to direct my attention today and and I do believe in diversity of ministry it

would be easy for us to get up and pull out the O apostolic candy stick and let's all lick on it and feel good get a good taste in our mouths and go home and have a shouting contest and have a response meter and just see how crazy we can drive the congregation and just see how loud we can make their response but I learned a while back that didn't always mean good preaching when you appease the people you may not necessarily be pleasing to the Lord so we need a diversity of ministry and I want to bring a diversified approach to the word of the Lord

I want to address a select sect of people that sit in our sanctuaries Sunday after Sunday and many of them are quite contradictory to your lifestyle they're quite in contrast to the way that you are living and many times in their silence they feel victimized and they feel that it's not really working for them there may be one or two here today because usually these meanings the best Saints come yeah they come the ones that need it the least or the ones who come but maybe I can preach this to be archived then

it will reach somebody somewhere or maybe a pastor can take this home as a friend of mine used to say when I finished preaching this today I give all of you permission take this little thought home and biggie size it take it on to your house and you don't have to say this is what brother Huntley said I mean we preach the Bible or saying what Peter said we're saying what John said so you don't have to quote anybody just make it yours and beat you size it and preach it in your church because you got a sect sitting on your pews in your chairs that are being victimized mentally by the adversary

I've come to defend them today I've come to rebuke discouragement in their life I've come to tell them that Jesus loves them I to tell them that the church loves them I've come to tell them that heaven is their home

when we condense this context we will discover it is one of contrasts the one I've just read Luke 16 19 through 25 it is a scriptural context of contrast between time and eternity that's another thing that's missing is we are so wrapped up in time we have forgotten there's an eternity matter of fact if you know me at all you know

my daughter said one time she said you know what Ned she said I've noticed this she said what kids get punished for his children they get paid to do as adults like jesus said and I go study and learn what that means I'm just watching bitly you know Billy has a hard time staying in school he has a hard time with the boredom of school he has a hard time probably gets it just like me when I was a child

my mother spanked me but I remember I rarely got a spanking for what I did I got spankings for what I said and God said I'm gonna take that tongue and sanctified and so be careful don't destroy what God's trying to develop in your children just get it saved just get it safe so sometimes our wording is very emphatic very powerful and we need to be careful about that

but I want to talk to you about a contrast between time and eternity this portion of Scripture gives us a word picture of a man that had his death everybody at his death angels would be dispatched to escort him into what is called Abraham's bosom an old dark long black hearse would not pick him up jóska take the night off you know there's not going to be an examiner there when he died angels were sent from heaven and God said you go down there and pick him up and you put him in your arms and you bring him

the Bible said when the rich man died he was buried but when Lazarus died angels came and escorted him into what is called Abraham's bosom I don't know all about that I'm sure our bishop here in his Scholastic scriptural and sensitivity intelligence could probably tell me more about what Abraham's bosom is I don't know where it is but I got a feel it's a good place into Abraham's bosom when the rich man died he was buried but when the Lazarus died he was escorted by angels into a prepared special precious place

so let us observe just a little closer to this narrative and this time I just come across who is the good guy in this story and just who is the bad guy I've already given you a clue of my critical statements of the TV preachers who is right in this text and who was wrong who was saved and who was lost

in today's modern fairy tale type Disney World and they live happily ever after presentation of the gospel and Christianity we would erroneously conclude that the rich man represents today's believer the saved and Lazarus the poor beggar would be lost unbeliever as Christianity is presented today the rich man had everything the Christian is improperly promised by psycho-cybernetics positive think & Grow Rich preachers and expects you to run the alisone now because that's not what you want to hear preached

he had the expensive clothes he had the full bank account he had a palatial Palace in a gated community a full refrigerator full garage with life's greatest and grandest toys however in reality the beggar was lonely homeless unhealthy and hungry and evidently didn't have any insurance because the dogs were licking his wounds he was in a pitiful diabolical pot of societal disregard which speaks a word of encouragement to me for some in this audience today

it is better to be miserable and saved than to be comfortable and be lost and being miserable hear me now being miserable does not mean you're not saved Lazarus was living in a miserable state of condition but he was saved being lonely doesn't mean you're not saved being afflicted doesn't mean you're not saved being poor does not mean you are not safe I

preached the last year over in Madagascar 30,000 people gathered to hear the gospel preached and most of them made $1.00 or less a day are you telling me because they are poor and live shacks and shanties most of them don't have shoes that they're not saved we've got a wrong concept of what salvation is really all about it's not about fancy clothes huge cars private jets lovely Hoffs it's about eternity then we'll bring it on in right now

not having the perfect family does not mean that you are not saved there is an epidemic right now across the Apostolic fellowship many are leaving the church leaving their marriages leaving their pastors leaving their homes and when you talk to them this is all they say I refuse to live the rest of my life unhappy they leave holiness for a pseudo happiness now in case you don't understand what I'm saying you need to know this so salvation so satisfaction it's different from a PC flesh

you can go to a bar and appease your flesh you can go a lot of places and do a lot of things that are wrong and make your flesh feel good because no matter how long you have the Holy Ghost no matter how much you speak in tongues no matter how many angels visit you you need to know this right now your flesh is not saying your flesh is not saved

the thing you need to give attention to it's not pleasing your flesh not making your flesh happy not baby in your flesh not pampering your flesh but realizing if this flesh has to live in par man persecution and punishment I gotta see my soul say I want you to understand and I know this is strange preaching but I feel like there's a segment that needs to be told this

you don't have to be happy to be saved I'm preaching about a real world we live in you don't have to be happy to be saved because happy and happenings is a result of a temporary occasion the universe they gift you're happy you get a raise on the job you're happy

but joy is what comes from the Holy Ghost and joy is this the kingdom of God is not meat and drink notice the list and I believe the power of the word its righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost notice the succession you got to have righteousness to give you peace and when you get righteousness and to get peace then you have joy joy it's rooted in peace and righteousness is being right God when you get right with God you won't just have happiness you'll have joy now here's what I'm gonna preach quickly in one statement

Lazarus God in eternity everything that the rich man had in life so the question is do you want it in life or do you want it in eternity Lazarus said I'd rather beg for crumbs I'd rather wear the beggars garment I'd rather be lonely I'd rather be rejected I'd rather be disappointed in pie so that in eternity

David said for me I shall be satisfied when I awake in his likeness I don't know what Heaven's gonna be I don't know all about it but I know something very unusual rare is gonna happen in some humanity they're going to be satisfied nobody's gonna be dissatisfied with heaven nobody's gonna be disappointed in heaven nobody's gonna say I didn't I thought it would be better than this so you've got to come to grips with what is important to you time or eternity Lazarus got in eternity what the rich man had anytime what I want to emphasize just just

because you're saved does not guarantee you a life of exemption distinction elevation when you get the Holy Ghost ladies and gentlemen you are not bubble-wrapped what I'm saying is a lot of people leaving the church because it ain't I'm getting ahead of myself here but it's not just working for them like it's projected from here and like it's paraded up here all we sees the success stories all we hear is I was poor now I'm rich and most of us represent that the mass majority are saved and comfortable

but I'm not preaching to you today God bless you I'm one of you I'm saved and I'm comfortable I can pull up to a gas station any day of the week and fill my car up and I'll have to worry about how much it cost there was a day I asked my wife how much you got she said three dollars I got five dollars okay let's get six dollars worth of gas so we can have a hamburger I'm telling there was a my preaching of somebody here today there was a day I live like that but now I just pull up say

fill her up baby let's go I'm telling you need to rejoice if you're blessed and comfortable God has blessed you I'm all about that I love that and I thank you but there's some among us that are blessed and they're miserable to be apostolic or Pentecostal does not guarantee healing every time for everyone this dear man here and this dear lady here miss dear brother here and a sister that's out there experienced something I pray none of you have to go through

but they looked at that 29 year old daughter in that casket and they kissed her cheek but they didn't say like the world goodbye they said good night baby mom and daddy will see you in the morning because this is not about time this is not about time this is about eternity

I know you like the Bible so let's read 2nd Timothy 4 20 I'll believe they'll have it for us here Paul the mighty apostle the gifted dynamic mighty man that experienced the miraculous and the supernatural everybody say Paul had it if anybody's got it he said Erastus abode at Corinth but truffle must have I left at my ledum sick

not everybody gets healed even in Paul's church there was some folks that were sick I know God's perfect will for the churches for everybody to be healed at times everybody say at times because he said if there's any sick among you which means he's thinking there may be a day when ain't nobody sick of mice but there's a possibility there may be somebody here

so I'm preaching to the mind you select sect of them of the minority and not the majority I want to tell you that living for God does not guarantee financial prosperity for everyone acts three and six Peter said everybody said Peter was a big time preacher I mean he preached the first message at the day of Pentecost the conference's don't get any bigger than the one he preached he was the featured speaker and he had the keys in his hand he should have been flown there in a private jet he should have had his servants waiting on him but the Bible said Peter said

silver and gold have I none your spirituality your walk with God your spiritual location is not measured by your bank account I'm preaching all kind of stuff y'all don't want to hear but didn't do her me I'll be through in just a minute I know you want me to tell you everyone you're gonna be rich you're gonna be healed you're gonna marry Prince Charming the one the most wonderful lady in the world is gonna come into your hey we can I preach y'all right now

we got single adults on our in our church that are too young for Medicare and too old for men to care but they are still living for God and they watch happy couples walk out of church every Sunday morning and there's families in our church that can't have children but they watch young couples walk away with children they watch people come to church with everything they would ever like to have but just because they don't have it they refuse to surrender they used to give up because they know it's better to be miserably saved than it is to be comfortably lost home him

get in the church and you'll get ahead Paul didn't he lost his all didn't get a head he got his cut off you know with me now oh if you'll get in the church you'll get a head so much so follow that he got in the church and lost his head I'm trying to shake this thing down

to the reality of where all the fancy frills and all the amenities and all the special blessings that can come from Almighty God don't determine whether we go to church or not it doesn't determine whether we live holy or not it doesn't turn determine whether we're faithful to God or not the Lord giveth the Lord taketh away

I'm gonna bless him when he's given and I'm gonna bless him when he's taken away I don't understand it but in Acts chapter 12 Peter was delivered by angels from a sane sale jail sale where Herod kill James I can't figure that out I just know we serve a sovereign god I want to remind somebody this morning if healing doesn't come and prosperity never comes and deliverance never comes it is still better to be miserably saved than to be comfortably lost

some seventy-three is a chapter of contradiction that really is mess with my mind for years 73 1 & 2 he said truly God is good to Israel how you doing great God's good God's good he said truly God is good to Israel even as such as are of a clean heart next verse but as for me but as for me I'm not saying that God's not good I'm not saying that God doesn't love his church that's what the writer said but he said it ain't working for me it may be working for you but he said it's not working for me

now this is not in my message but I'm gonna quickly move on I just want to add one little thought here to your repertory and carry this home can you get the last verse of the previous chapter Psalm 72 if you can't if you can't always have somebody read it right this is that a problem there it is this is this this about knocked me off my feet so I'm gonna sit down and read it

how do you get into 73 when the writer is saying God's blessing everybody but me how do you get to 73 where he said man the rich they're just doing great they don't love you God the boy they're there they're there their money's growing every day they're there being advanced they don't they're not sick they don't have problems like they're not living for you you read that chapter and that's what he was saying

I look around here man everything's going great buddy I mean I'm trying to do what's right this is getting tough but as for me I want to show you spiritually how you getting that kind of a shape it's the last verse the prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended

when you quit praying you're headed for depression and the more struggles you got the more you gotta pray the tougher it is on you the more prayer you got to have years ago we had a lady in our church she was coming every day before we had daily prayer we have daily prayer now in the sanctuary at the temple of Pentecost Monday through Friday 9:00 to 4:00 somebody signs up to pray one hour Monday through Friday every day in that church it revolutionized our church

but before we started that there was one lady that came on her own her name was Judy Stevens she's still in the church one night I got a monster preacher nice bracket on Judy Judy's here every day praying praying praying oh my god give us some more people like Judy she's a prayer warrior after church she came to me with tears streaming down her face and she said brother honey I'm not a celebrity I'm not a hero I'm not anything special

you don't understand if I don't pray I'm not gonna make it it's not a matter of revival for me it's a matter of survival you don't know what's going on in my life you don't have tough it is you don't know what my battles like I don't pray to be something spiritual I pray to be something that will be saved David listed all those things but then he went on down and he said I believe it is in 17 maybe 16 I'm not sure 73 maybe 16 see what that says could be 17 yeah 17 he said all this stuff was as we say eating my lunch

until I went into the century of God and when I got into the sanctuary of God notice what he saw not the past and not the present he said when I saw the end when I got a vision of time and eternity when I got a glimpse away from this to all of that then this is what he said in verse number 28 he said

but it is good for me to draw near to God I don't care how bad it looks it's still good for me to come to church I don't care how negative it is I don't care how much I'm struggling I don't care how it looks everybody else is getting stuff I can't have it doesn't seem to matter to me that everybody else is doing what I wish I could do he said

but I know one thing it's good for me to trust God and I'm gonna trust him and I will declare his goodness to me because I'm not living in time I'm living in eternity let me skip over a bunch of this and quit I didn't want to say this I know this because our pastor Church

there are people on our pews that shake and shiver with redraws with with withdrawals because of their former sinful life and their flesh is in trauma I'm gonna give some of you something to shout about right now we just haven't shouted like we all to shout because we all want to shout about what we do instead of what he's done but I want to preach to you tonight I'm gonna move from the minority to the majority

if you've never been bound on drugs you need to stand and shout right now if you have never been an alcoholic you need to stand and shout right now if you never know addiction you understand it shout right now because you have no idea what they're going through you have no idea what they're suffering with and yet they push themselves to church and they keep on coming to church knowing it's not about time it's about eternity

remain standing and if I have to go to the altar every service and cry it's better than I cry at the altar every service then laughs in the drug den we were married many years let me say this woman one more thing there are people that I passed her no doubt

you passed her that live in shacks nearly starved have none of the luxuries of life and they know if they wanted to before dark they could have their pockets bulging with money because they are former drug dealers most of them can't even get a job because of their past and they live in poverty and they know one phone call and I could be back in business and I can make more money in a day than I make in a month but it's sin and it's wrong and I'd rather be in poverty in time and be rich in eternity

my wife told me this story here a while back my heart my wife's story and my story is much alike neither one of us had fathers my father was in and out of the home her father was never in her life at all and so her mother had to work menial tasks of waitressing cleaning houses washing people's clothes to feed her boys and my wife very humbling years into my mother laws life a wealthy man I'd her and fail for her and begged her to marry him he was not a Pentecostal she said no I'd rather be miserable in life and saved and comfortable in eternity

their family was so impoverished that as a waitress this is hard for me to fathom but as a waitress if someone left a steak or hamburger on the plate she would go over and take a knife and cut the edge where they had been eating off and put it in a plate and take it home so her boys could have meat and because of that she raised all of her kids to be Pentecostal several of her sons were preachers and my wife of course is who she is it's because a lady made up her mind one day I'd rather be miserable and saved and comfortable and lost

I'm preaching to some people today who need to rush to this front and know that God heard your cry and God you may just there's just a minority it's such a small minority we're bad about overlooking them but the good shepherd goes after the one and you're serving the Good Shepherd who has felt your pain who has heard your cry and he wants to remind you this morning it's better to be miserable and saved than to be comfortable and lost

this is the way we all should feel until I'd rather Jesus then that's what I was waiting on I'd rather be in Israel and saved has to be comfortable any loss I mean kill that lady today I just want to remind you this is all about time but we're headed to Eternity and it's better to be miserable and safe than to be comfortable and lost if I have to come to church all my life and never have a handsome husband that loves the Lord I'm gonna

live for God if I never get a beautiful wife it has to come to church by myself I'd rather be miserly say that's to be comfortably loved the Hebrew boys said we know our God can but if not it's not gonna change our lifestyle you may know somebody in this room that I have preached to today they could use a hand upon their shoulder they could use some arm around them right now confirming them and assuring them that it's better to be miserable and be safe than to be comfortable and be lost if you know

somebody that's going through a valley if you know somebody that's living on the climbing up the rough side of the mountain reach over pray for him right now you know who they are you know where they are they're a small number among us because most of us are saved and comfortable but God loves the miserable and the save as well as the comfortable and the same live chance and lift your voice and say I'm gonna live for you Lord I'm gonna serve you Lord I'm gonna obey your Lord