Blessed in Every Season

Well, 1994 — I was sixteen. What he started in — I leaned over to Brother Flowers. I said, "You know how old he's going to make me sound about right now?" It's a joy to be with you tonight. Thank you for coming out on a Thursday evening and being a part of this roving camp meeting. It's been a joy, and I've been delighted to spend these last couple of nights traveling, of course, with the Hodges, and they're just such wonderful people. And then of course your district secretary has been here each night. And I give honor to Brother Flowers, and the presbyter here in this section, and Brother Cupley. Thank you, sir, for allowing me to stand here in your pulpit. I don't take that lightly. Amen.

Now, tonight I'm going to give fair warning. Okay? You've been advised — to everybody that's here and everybody that's watching — before I get done tonight, I'm going to preach to every person in this house. Now, you say, "Well, that's a little bold." No, no. I'm going to preach to everybody here, but not all at the same time.

Psalm chapter 1, the first Psalm, and I will read the first three verses of the first Psalm. I hope in short order to make sense of that statement I just made: I'm going to preach to everybody; I'm just not going to preach to everybody at once. You're all going to get your turn. Psalm 1 and verse one. The Bible says: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water" — watch — "that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

My message to you tonight — here's the title: Blessed in Every Season. Blessed in every season. Amen. You can be seated tonight.

I get tickled sometimes. We all do it — preachers are funny critters. We say some of the silliest things in the pulpit sometimes. We've all done it. Somebody may have done it tonight; I didn't notice it. We may do it tomorrow night. But we say it. We'll say things like this: "Let's all stand to our feet." Is there another option? "Let's all stand — our kidneys doesn't work." I mean, I was preaching one night, and I said — I was getting ready to read my text — I said, "If you have your Bibles, I'll be reading from Matthew chapter 10." After service, my wife said, "If we didn't have our Bibles, where were you going to read?" It's a good point. We say funny things. We say things like, "I remember the night I found God." Didn't know He was lost. "I remember the night He found me." We say these kind of funny things. One of the little quirky things that preachers do: we get up sometimes to fill space, and we ask questions we don't even expect an answer to — just rhetorical questions, right? "How many are glad to be here tonight?" Well, what kind of question is that? You think anybody's going to stand up and go, "Not me"? It's just really odd. But we do it. And "how many this," and "how many that," and we start all these "how many" questions, and we don't even really expect an answer or want one. We're just trying to fill time until the keyboard finds the right song or something, you know?

So, I've got one tonight that could come across that way, except I think I know the answer to it, but I think it merits our response: How many here tonight want to be blessed? I think the answer is self-evident. Anybody with two brain cells that touch each other wants to be blessed of God. Now, unfortunately, our culture — even our religious culture — has corrupted this idea of being blessed by attaching dollar signs to it. And blessings, they say, have to do with the car you drive, and the house you live in, and your bank balance, and a host of other things that are one day just going to burn up and aren't going with us anyway. But I would maintain tonight that there are blessings in this life that go way beyond what you could put a price tag on. And in fact, the blessings I want, you can't measure on a balance sheet, and they don't show up on your bank account. It's the most foolish thing in the world when prostituted pulpits across our land try to spew out to you that God wants everybody to be a millionaire. Hogwash. God doesn't want everybody to be happy; God wants everybody to be holy. Well — and He'd a lot rather you'd go to heaven broke than go to hell with a million dollars in the bank. So why don't you stop complaining about the material things you don't have, and start rejoicing over the blessings that you do have?

Because I tell you tonight: we're a blessed people. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind — that's a blessing. God will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it — that's a blessing. Come on, somebody: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" — that's a blessing. "I will never leave you nor forsake you" — that's a blessing. Your sins have been washed away in the blood of Jesus — that's a blessing. You're filled with the Holy Ghost — that's a blessing. You walk in apostolic truth — that's a— Somebody needs to stand up and say, "God, I want to thank You: I am blessed." I've got peace that passes understanding — I'm blessed. I've got joy in midnight hours — I'm blessed. My sins have been forgiven — I'm blessed. I'm a new creature in Christ — I'm blessed. I've got a treasure in earthen vessels — I am blessed. Hallelujah.

I don't mean to be unkind — it just comes natural sometimes. Hold on, just don't move. But I don't think we've done justice to God's goodness in our life by doing something like this. "Go ahead, preacher, say something else to entertain me. Get to your message. What are you going to say?" I don't think we've really done justice to God, and how good He's been to us, for me to preach about all that stuff, and for us to give Him a token thirteen-second hand clap while we look around to see what everybody else is doing. I wish for just a minute every blessed person in this house would lose yourself in thanksgiving and adoration to God for His goodness. I'm blessed. I am blessed, and I want to walk in blessing. And the good news is, that is promised to us. Psalm 5:12: "For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield." Psalm 67 and 5: "Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him."

It is one of the neatest word pictures I know of in the Scriptures, in Deuteronomy 28, when it says: "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth" — watch — "and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out." God said: if you just obey Me, I will send blessings after you. You don't have to chase blessings; you just seek Me, and I will send blessings that will chase you down. They're like bloodhounds — you can't get away from them. You'll be driving down the road, and a blessing will jump on you. You'll be working on your job, and a blessing will jump on you. You'll be sitting in your living room, and a blessing that I sent after you will come on you and overtake you. They are chasing you down, if you're obedient to the voice of the Lord. If we obey Him, I maintain we can be blessed in every season.

Our text today talks about seasons. Now, I'm a Midwesterner. I grew up in southern Illinois; I now live in Missouri. We have seasons there. I know you say you do, too, but you don't. I will never forget the first time I visited San Diego. I preached in San Diego a million years ago, way before '94, and it was January. And I left St. Louis with top coat and boots and scarves and mittens and dog sleds. And I landed, and Pastor Hodges picked me up at the airport. I walk outside: it's 71. I remember asking you this; I said, "What's a cold night out here?" He said, "Oh, man." He said, "Every winter, we'll get down a night or two, maybe 55." It tested my cherub-like demeanor. I said, "What's a hot day?" I mean, "What's a day in the summer, if I talk about how hot it is?" Now, I know it depends on where you live out here, because he told me the first day I got here — he said, "We're working our way from San Diego to Las Vegas; enjoy it, it ain't going to get better." But I remember you telling me, "Oh, it'll get up to 85." I'm like, "Oh, please — 30 degrees in a year? We do that before noon."

I was landing one day at LAX, years ago. The guy next to me was extolling the wonders of living in Southern California — "and this is a wonderful place, and I love you, and I love being out here, I love visiting." He was just— and I said, "Yeah, it's beautiful, it's awesome. I'm just kind of used to seasons." He said, "Well, we have four seasons here." I said, "Well, I mean, yeah, I know." I said, "Ours are very distinct." He said, "Ours are very distinct. They're just not the four you're used to. You have spring, summer, fall, and winter. Here in LA, we have mudslide, earthquake, wildfire, and riot." I said, "You probably don't want to take a job at the Chamber of Commerce. You're not exactly luring me here."

I talked to a guy one time who lived way, way north in Canada — way north, just south of Santa. And he said, "We have four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and July 10th." It's their fourth season: July 10th. Seasons — we, back where I'm from, we understand this probably a little better than you do. You don't go out to the peach orchard in January and expect to find peaches. There are peach trees, but it's not the season for peaches. You'd get frustrated if you expected there to be peaches on the tree in that season, because if it didn't have the dormant season, it would not produce in the produce season. Every season has its purpose. Every season works together to accomplish the whole. God ordains seasons, and there are seasons in our lives. But I believe you can be blessed in every season.

Sometime back, a new understanding of Psalm 1 and 1 opened up to me: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." I wonder, perhaps — just as a theory, we could consider tonight — if, rather than that verse being three admonitions to a man at one time, maybe these address different seasons. Because you will notice in that verse, the man who is referenced becomes increasingly less mobile. He is walking, and then he's standing, and then he's sitting. It speaks of declining physical strength and declining activity level. Perhaps it depicts the aging of the man in that verse. And so maybe, instead of three admonitions to a man at one time, it's admonitions for everybody in this house at different seasons of life.

Perhaps the key to being blessed is this — and this is where I will preach to everybody tonight: that as a young man or a young woman, if I want to be blessed, I can't listen to ungodly counsel. As a middle-aged man, if I want to raise my family in righteousness, I've got to examine what I'm standing for. And as a senior saint, I've got to be careful I don't sit back and fold my arms and start looking at everything with scorn. All right — so, I just laid out the outline for my message right there. And I'm going to preach to everybody in this house at one time or another. But I am going to start tonight by talking to the young men and the young ladies — the walkers.

The Psalmist first addresses that younger generation. They are walking. They are active. They are strong. They are moving. They are doing, they are going, and they are busy. And that's okay, because that's the season you're in. I leaned over to your superintendent tonight, and I said, "I'm so blessed, because there's such an incredible representation of young people and young adults in this district." If you're more than about twenty-five years old, you ought to thank God that your district is populated with young men and young ladies that love Jesus, and are not ashamed to be apostolic, and are not ashamed to be worshipers. I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry: don't number me among those that's always wagging my finger at our young people, and talking about how carnal and how backslid and all that stuff. I refuse to get caught up. They're living in the most corrupt world that's been since the Empire of Rome, and they're still here on a Thursday night, worshiping God and shouting and rejoicing. I thank God for our young people. I honor you tonight. John said, "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong." I don't think our young people are failing. I think our young people are strong. And I thank God for you. I believe in you. I'm grateful for your worship. I'm grateful for your hunger after God. I believe you can do great things for a great God at a great time. In fact, I'll go one step further: you ain't going to have no million-soul revival without our young people being a key part of it. Amen. We need their energy, and their strength, and their zeal, and their excitement. And I know they might make a mistake every now and then, but thank God they love Jesus. Thank God they know their way to the altar.

All right — but there is counsel given to you in this verse. The Psalmist said: if you want to be blessed when you're walking, don't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Don't let ungodly voices speak into your life. Don't be watching ungodly junk on the screen. Don't be listening to ungodly music. Don't let ungodly counsel come through your eyes. Don't let ungodly counsel come through your ears. Not just every kind of music brings blessing. Not just every kind of entertainment brings— Not just every girl you can date brings blessing. Not just every guy that asks you out brings blessing. We need some young people to stand up in a wicked world and say, "I want to be blessed more than I want to be popular. I want to be blessed more than—" Come on. Our youth culture in this world has gone crazy. What is with this ignorant fascination with everything that's dark and evil and flavored by the occult? What's the deal in the last decade with this fascination with zombies, vampires, all manner of shows and books and games and even comic books featuring vampires, zombies, as villains — or in some cases the heroes? A few years ago, Twilight, a book and movie series, became a huge success among teens, and the author, Stephenie Meyer, even went so far as to write about demonic spirits having sexual relations with humans. And teenagers were reading it. Game of Thrones swept our culture, full of sex and violence. Listen to me a minute: that mess is corrupt. That mess is unclean. That mess is ungodly counsel. And if you want to be blessed, you're not going to have anything to do with it. I need some young people to jump up and say, "I want to be blessed. I want to live separate." Holiness is more than just how long my dress is. Holiness is not walking in ungodly counsel. I beg your pardon, but that is not harmless entertainment. An infatuation with demonic spirits, practices of the occult, is a dangerous path to follow. Parents, you would do well to be familiar with that junk that's trying to get into your kids' lives. Young men and young ladies, I want to encourage you: stay away from some things. You should not need your pastor to name everything before you don't partake. You better listen to Uncle Scotty for just a minute: there's some stuff you don't need your pastor — you ought to just look at it and go, "That ain't even close to holy, and I'm not going to let that speak into my ears. I'm not going to let that come through my eyes. And he doesn't have to threaten to set me down out of the youth choir for me to get rid of it. I want to be blessed more than I want anything."

All right, all right, all right, all right. You need a story — I happen to have one. My wife is from Florida. I rescued her from all that sun and palm trees. The consequence of that, of course, is that she has lived the better part of the last thirty-five years cold. And in our church one day, years way back, somebody gave her a sweater. Let me explain that to you: it's a thick article of clothing. Now, I don't know how to say this except just to say it. All right: it was, without debate, the ugliest sweater that has ever been in Western civilization. It was horrible. It was nasty — big old blobs of three-dimensional colored little rings and fluffy ball things, and all kinds of color. It was bad. But it was thick, so it was warm, so she liked it. Every time she'd wear that thing — I was just getting ready to go someplace one day; I was out in the living room; she came walking out; she had on that sweater. And apparently, Brother Clemens, that particular day, I did not have my blank look on quite as good as I should have, because she looked at me and said, "You really don't like this sweater, do you?" Do a little premarital counseling here, gentlemen: that day comes in your life, that's a very scary moment. That is a moment fraught with danger. The wrong thing said could have dire consequences. But I make my living with words. I looked at her and I said, "Sweetheart, a sweater that looks like that does not do justice to your beauty." I've got three guys that ain't taking notes on anything — writing that one down right there.

I tell you that to tell you this: I didn't threaten her. I didn't say, "If you wear that sweater again, I'm going to go get a divorce attorney. If you wear that sweater again, I'm going to kick you out the house. If you wear that sweater again, I'm going to set you down off the platform. If you wear that sweater again, I'm going to take you out the youth choir." All I did is just kind of express to her that the One that loved her didn't really like it. She walked back in the room and changed clothes, and gave that sweater away. I would to God we would live in a way that says, "Lord, all I need to know is: do You like it? You don't have to threaten me with hell. You don't have to threaten me with consequences. Pastor doesn't have to get on me. If I know I'm wearing something You don't like, it's gone. If I know I'm listening to something You don't like, I'm done. If I know I'm saying anything You don't like, it's going to—" Come on, young people: I want you to be blessed. I want you to be blessed. So, you've got to clean some — "I'm not going to watch that movie. I want to be blessed. I'm not going to go to that party. I want to be blessed. I'm not going to that website. I want to be blessed." It's not about what I can get away with. It's not about what will send me to hell, or what my parents might learn about. I want to be blessed, so I will not be counseled by the ungodly. I will not be driven by voices that want to take me to hell.

You want me to say it in English? I do not understand why any godly apostolic young person would let their worship be dictated by the most carnal member in the youth group. I am fixing to amen myself. You've got some kid down there that doesn't even want to live for God, and he wants to try to set the temperature and the climate for my youth group. I'm sorry, sir: you can live like you want, but as for me, I want to be blessed. I'm going to be a worshiper. I'm going to dress holy. I'm going to live right, because I want to be blessed. So if I have to separate from some close friendships, I'll do it. If I have to break off a dating relationship, I'll do it. If I have to change the circle I run in, I will do it, because I am not going to forfeit God's blessing just so I can listen to a voice that does not have my spiritual interest at heart anyway.

Listen to me: I am more interested in the approval of my elders than the applause of my peers. Did you hear what I said? I care more about what my elders think of me than what my peers think of me. I want to know what my pastor thinks. I want to know what my elders think. I want to know what the Holy Ghost says. I want to be blessed more than I want to be popular. I want to be blessed more than I want to fit into this world. So when you're walking, and you're still finding your way, and you're still moving, and you're still drifting, and you're still mobile — if you want to be blessed, you cannot have ungodly counsel in your life. So: blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.

But he doesn't stop there. Now, see, all y'all had fun when I was beating the kids up. But he moves from the walkers to the standers. The next group is no longer moving like they were. They've settled down. They're standing instead of walking. They're not falling down, but they've settled down. They're not as energetic as they used to be — pretty sure I'm there. They're standing. They've settled in. They've established some things. They aren't moving; settled all those issues. When I was eighteen, there might have been some question, but now it's established: I'm standing. To that group, he says: you'd better be careful where you stand. I'll say it this way: you'd better be careful what you stand for. I'm going to preach this, because everyone will stand for something. And he says to those of you that are thirty, thirty-five, forty, raising families: don't stand where sinners stand. You hear me say it in English? Your house ought to look different, sound different, feel different, talk different, dress different, live different than the other houses up and down your block. If you're watching all the same stuff they're watching, you're not standing in the right place. If you're talking about all the same stuff they're talking about, you're not standing in the right place. I need some moms and dads to plant your feet in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Because there are some things God can't bless. And I can desire blessing, and I can long for blessing, and I can even pray for blessing — but if I'm not standing for the right stuff, God can't bless me. You can pray for a better job all you want. You can ask God to open the windows of heaven all you want. You can pray your tongue falls out asking God to make you a millionaire. If you're not returning His tithe to Him, He can't bless you. I'm sorry. I ain't scared of you — unless you happen to be a Southwest pilot, I ain't scared of you at all.

There need to be some moms and dads that say, "You know what? We're going to establish our home on some things. We're going to be faithful to church." Your kids need to grow up in a home where the question is not, "Are we going to church tonight?" The only question is, "Is there church tonight?" Those standers need to have their feet planted in faithfulness, so your kids know what's the most important thing in your world.

Folks, our world is so messed up that we have to work diligently to live in a blessable fashion. We do. It's just crazy where the morals of our culture have gone, right? When I was a walker — if you had tried to tell, in '94, when I was preaching that thing, and you were two, and I was sixteen — if you had tried to tell me even then that there would ever be a prime time television show with an openly homosexual character, I would have laughed at you and said, "You're crazy. There's not one company in America that would advertise on a show like that." Now, when a company pulls their advertising from it, they get protested. Our world has gone— and men have called evil good, and good evil. And that's why I say: you've got to be more intent. You can't trust that the school is going to teach your kids a moral code. You can't trust that the Boy Scouts is going to teach your kids right from wrong. You can't tr— I need some moms and dads, some middle-aged folks, to say, "I'm standing for righteousness. I'm not going to be ugly, but I'm not going to bow. There's some things that are right, and there's some things that are wrong. And as for me and my house—"

Jesus Himself prayed for us in this regard. He said in John 17: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." We live here. Evil is all around us. But thank God His truth offers us a better way. We can be blessed. We have to crucify some attitudes. We have to kill some activities.

Okay, I'll do this. I was preaching, within the last hundred years, at a church that is located between the oceans. I'd been there a couple of nights, and on Sunday, a dad walked in with his daughter. I'm guessing about fourteen. And I don't want to be crude; I'll just say she was insufficiently clad. I've got more material in this hanky than she was wearing. Okay. Now, I wasn't mad at her. She's a teenager; she's dumber than hair. I don't know if you're aware of this biological fact: kids turn about twelve, their brain dehydrates. Help your parents — it does. It shrivels up about the size of a dried-up walnut, and just kind of rattles around in their head for a few years. And they're about twenty-five or so, they take a drink of water, it rehydrates, their brain goes— and they go, "Hey, Dad was right." It's okay. It's— this girl, this girl was in her dehydrated season. Don't blame her. I didn't want to go cast a devil out of her. I wanted to go pray for her dad. I so help me before God, I wanted— what I wanted to do, Brother Clemens, because I have this ability to be just a little sarcastic — I know, it's shocking — I wanted to walk back to him and say, "Sir, could I pray for you, because obviously you're blind? I don't know how you drove here. Must have a Tesla. I don't know how you could possibly drive here, because I know you can't see — because there's no way you looked at your daughter walking out the door like that and thought it would be a good idea to bring her to church like that." Because somehow that guy had the idea that it was his pastor's job to preach her down to the altar and get her straightened out, when really it was that dad's job to stand there and say, "Sweetheart, I love you, but we're not dressing like that. We want to be blessed." He blesses those lives that take a stand for Him.

Watch this: "Samuel, go down to Jesse's house. Anoint one of his kids to be king — one of his sons." All right. Samuel goes down there, takes the cruse of oil, the horn of oil, walks in the house. Here comes Eliab, the oldest. Starts— "Nope, not him." Oh, okay. Shammah — "Nope, not him." He parades them by, one after another. And finally God said, "Not him. Not him. Not him. Not him." And he knows God sent him there. So he says, "You've got another boy somewhere?" "Well, yeah — there's a little redheaded kid out on the back side of the hill over there, watching the sheep." Samuel makes an interesting statement. He says, "Go get him." And then he turns to them and says, "Nobody sit down till he gets here." Translation: when you're waiting for the king to show up, you stand. You want to know why you've got to take a stand? The King's on His way. The King's on His way. And when He splits the sky, I want Him to find some standers that are saying, "I'm not standing in sinful places. I'm standing for righteousness — as for me and my house." Come on, Dad: stand for modesty. Stand for purity. Stand for fiscal integrity. Stand for ethical principles. Moms, dads: your kids are depending on you.

Some years ago, I made a trip to Botswana in Africa. I preached a youth convention over there, a lot of years ago. And they took me on a game drive. It's what we would loosely call a safari, but safaris are hunting; we weren't hunting, we were just observing. Now, I want to tell you, it's one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life. They take you in this truck that has no top or sides on it. You sleep in a hut inside a fence, because there's critters out there — big ones. It's a zoo in reverse: you're the one in the cage, and the animals are looking in with a hungry look. And you would get in that truck and go drive out amongst them. Oh, it was cool. We drive out — and I don't mean drive out and say, "Look, there's lions over there." I'm talking about, "Look, there's a lion right there." We drive right up. I mean, right next to him. It's awesome. The driver one time said, "Hey, I want you to look at these lions." He said, "What color are they?" Well, you've all seen a lion — the brown, tan, tawny kind of thing, you know. He said, "Yeah, but look at the backs of their ears." Well, I wouldn't get down out of the truck to look, but you could see it. And the backs — now, see, you don't know this, because you're always in the picture; they're always looking at you — but the backs of their ears are jet black. Jet black. And the tip of their tail is black. He said, "Why do you think it's black on the back of their ears?" I said, "Poor hygiene?" I said, "I don't know." He said, "Well, think about it. Maybe it'll come to you." So we drive on, and we see it — this is an antelope. There's seven bazillion kinds of antelope. And this thing is all that same little tawny brown color, maybe some white specks in it, but it's all blend — except right on its hind end, on the flanks, on either side of its tail, there's a black stripe on either side. He said, "Why do you think that is?" I said, "I don't work here. I don't know — tell me." He said, "Well, think about it; maybe it'll come." We drove on. We find another of the seven bazillion kinds of antelope, and it's all that color, except its tail. And right down the center of its tail, it has a black stripe. He said, "Now, why do you think that is?" I said, "I think I'm going to throw you out the truck. If you— I'm not — just tell me." He said — I could not get to my pen fast enough to write it down when he said this: "If the adults blend in completely with the world they live in, their young will not know where it's safe to walk." So he said: "So the adults maintain some distinctions from the world around them, so that as they journey, their young can look and say, 'That's where I'm supposed to go.'" You know what your pastor needs? He needs some men of God — no, I didn't say preachers; I said men of God — to stand up and say, "We're not going to be like this world. But if you just go like I go, if you live like I live, if you pray like I pray, if you worship like I worship, you will be safe. I plead with you: stand for what is right." You back your pastor up. You demonstrate what submission looks like. Live it in front of your family.

I'm trying to get done, but I ain't there yet. "We want a king." "You don't want a king." "Yeah, we want a king." "Israel wants a king." "No, you don't. You don't want a king. I'm your king." "We want a king." "You don't want a king." "We want a king." "Why do you want a king?" "Because all the other nations around here have one, and we want to be like them." "But don't you understand? You live in a different place. God is your king." "No, no, no — we want a king." The prophet looked at them and said, "Okay, let me tell you about your king. You're going to get a king. You want a king, you'll get a king. Let me tell you what it's going to cost you. It's going to take a tenth of your grain. He's going to take a tenth of your fields." But that's not where it stopped. He said, "He's going to take your sons, and they're going to run before his chariots. And he's going to take your daughters, and they're going to be bakers and confectioners." You hear me? You decided you want to be like the world, but your kids are going to pay the price for it. I'm going to amen myself in a minute, because I've watched way too many adults that decided they weren't going to live sanctified, and they weren't going to live faithful, and their kids paid the price. Hosea 4:6: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." You better stand for some things. You better stand for some things. If you want your family to be blessed, you better stand for some things. And you can't wait till your kid is sixteen years old and then decide it's time to get faithful.

All right — I've got to move on. All right, so, you walkers: don't you listen to ungodly counsel. You standers: you'd better stand in a place of righteousness. And then he moves on, and he speaks to the more senior men and women — the sitters. I'm not about to decide who is who tonight. I had a man tell me one time — he said, "I think I'm in between. I'm a squatter." The Psalmist — and I will finish pretty quickly here — the Psalmist addresses that final group. They're seated. They're a little older. They're weary. They're not up to walking. And even standing for very long is a little more than they want to do. Their life is not over — listen to me right now — and their usefulness is nowhere near past. We need our elders. Listen: I didn't just say we love them; I said we need them. I didn't just say we honored them; I said we need them. You young people, you'd better never get the idea that just because they can't get up there and shout like you did with that praise team, that somehow they're not valuable anymore. We need our elders. Well, thank God for elders that pattern faithfulness. Thank God for those who may have to sit more than they used to, but they still show us how to be committed to a marriage, how to support a church, how to pray, and how to be faithful to God. We'd better love and value those elders.

Back where I'm from, we have these things called fireplaces. I don't know how Santa even visits y'all. We have these things called fireplaces — build a fire inside our house to keep us warm, because we have something called winter. You know, there are two important components of fireplaces: fire and bricks. Now, if you didn't have the fire, it would not attract anybody; nobody would come just to stare at the bricks. But if you didn't have the bricks, the fire, instead of being attractive, would be destructive. You know what a district needs? It needs fire, and it needs bricks. You know what a church needs? It needs fire, and it needs bricks. Because if there's no fire, ain't nobody going to be attracted to it. But if there's no bricks, that fire will burn the house down. So you'd better thank God for some bricks that may not burn as brightly on Sunday, but they give structure, and they give stability, and they give a framework for the fire to burn.

All right, I've got one more thing on that. And if you ever get the mistaken idea that just because bricks don't blaze, that they're not hot: they've been around the fire so long, they've absorbed that heat way down deep inside. And when the fire goes out, they stay hot a lot longer than the ashes do. And those elders stay hot when you and your friends are being carnal in McDonald's after church. That old elder has sucked it way down deep inside. I say, "Thank God for our elders. Thank God for our elders."

I'm trying to get done, but you're making this way too much fun. It's your fault. There's a man that is known out here in California somewhere. You would have known him; he's passed now. Terry Gunn — remember the Terry Gunn Singers, out of Stockton for many years? He's out of our church. His daddy raised their family in our church. Just passed away a year ago — Elder Gunn, 92, 91, something like that; he passed away a few years ago — it's been, I don't know, six, seven years ago. We went through a stretch in the winter. It snowed — I know you don't know what that is; look it up later. It snowed every Saturday for like eight weeks in a row. We canceled more church in that season than we ever had. It was COVID training. I was so mad. I mean, literally — I wish I was kidding about this — I stand in my yard one Saturday night about eight o'clock, going, "Seriously? It snowed?" So, one week I told Bishop Dugas — I said, "We're having church this Sunday. I don't care what happens. I don't care if the Abominable Snowman is the usher; we're having church this Sunday. If nobody gets there but me and my wife, I'll preach to her; she'll preach to me. We're having church." So sure enough — oh wait, sure enough, about Wednesday the forecasters start saying, "Major winter storm coming this weekend." And every day it's getting — where it's going to be worse: "Going to be bad; winter storm warning." About Saturday, they're saying snow starting tonight about eight o'clock. Sure enough, get up Sunday morning, we've got about eight or nine inches of snow or something like that. I ain't canceling. I got on the phone, called a bunch of young would-be preacher dudes in our church. Said, "Oh, you're called to preach, are you? Get you a shovel." Said, "Meet me at church. I'm in a suit and boots." And I'm shoveling. They're shoveling. We're throwing salt. The plow — I'm sorry, you don't know what that is; that's a truck with a blade on the front of it that cleans the snow off the lot — it had not even gotten there yet to clean the parking lot off, right? It's still just buried snow. We're shoveling the sidewalks, throwing salt. I've already gotten phone calls from a dozen young, able-bodied, healthy young families: "Pastor, I don't think we can make it today. It's bad out there." And the first car pulls in the parking lot — and it's Elder Gunn, who at the time was, I think, 85. Oh wait, wait — it gets better. It gets better. He couldn't even find the handicap spot, because it's covered in snow. He approximated. He got out of his car with his walker, plowing ruts in the snow. I went running down to him, Brother Flowers. I said, "Elder, what are you doing here?" He looked at me and said, "Isn't it Sunday?" We'd better thank God for "Isn't it Sunday?" people. We'd better thank God for elders that built this thing. We'd better thank God for those people whose faithfulness gave us what we have.

All right. But elders, the writer speaks to you as well. And he says: if you want to be blessed, when you reach the point that you have to sit down, it is way too easy for some people in that season to sit in a place of scorn — to become negative, critical, and judgmental about everything that's following them, to spot every fault in the generations that are coming on, and to question and doubt their commitment. I want to tell you what kind of church is blessed: it's a church where the young people honor the elders, and a church where the elders trust the young people. All right. I know everybody's not perfect. You say, "Yeah, but these young people have got some problems." Yeah — and you had them when you were a teenager, too. I know everything's not done just like it used to be. I don't see accordions coming back. When I was pastoring — I'm a recovering pastor now — a youth choir was up singing one night, and they sang a song. I didn't like it. It had three words; they sang them over and over for an hour. I didn't like it. Wasn't anything wrong with it. Wasn't ungodly. I just didn't like it. I mean, you've got to understand: in my car, my satellite radio was set to '65 — Enlightened Southern Gospel. They all just went, "He's wrong. He ain't cool." No, I'm not. I got off the cool train several stops ago. I ain't getting back on. Okay? I'm not even interested. All I'm telling you is that music — I didn't like the song. It didn't do anything for me. But I tell you what got under my skin: looking around over the congregation of people I pastored. People were going— I got up and interrupted their song. I stopped it. I said, "They are going to sing again in a minute, but I want you to listen to me. Even if you can't worship about what they're singing, surely you can worship that they're singing — because they could be out in a bar someplace. They could be out committing fornication. But instead, they're in church. They like the song. I don't care if you like it. Don't sit there in scorn."

Come on, elders: we need your support. We need you to believe in us. I know they don't sing— the music will change. Service schedule will change. We're on the internet now — I don't think they did that at Azusa. But we still repent of our sins. And we're still baptized in Jesus' name. And we still talk in tongues when we get filled with the Holy Ghost. And we're still living holy. And we still believe in one God. I say, thank God for elders that gave this to us. And thank God for elders that trust us with it.

Stand with me. You can be blessed in the season of life when you're sitting, as long as you don't sit in scorn — as long as you cheer the generations on. Because one day, after I sit a while, I'm going to take the next step: I'm going to lay down, and then I'm going to rise up, and I'm going to be in that great cloud of witnesses. And that cloud of witnesses does not criticize the runners — they cheer for the runners. So, Bishop Hodges, in the coming years, as I transition — I think I'm still a stander — and I start moving towards sitting, I want to start training for that cloud of witnesses. I want to look at those young people up here shouting and go, "I don't really get the song." Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. What happened to "Blessed Assurance"? "I don't really get the song, and I'm probably not going to buy a CD with that on it. But look at those young people up there jumping and shouting and praising God. Look at their excitement and their zeal. Look how—" I need a church that loves. I need young people that don't walk in ungodly counsel. We need moms and dads that stand for righteousness. And we need elders that don't get eaten up with scorn, but love everybody.

So, after preaching way too long, here's what tonight's altar call needs to look like. And I'm going to ask you a hard thing. I really don't want a walker praying with a walker. And I don't want a sitter praying with a sitter. And I don't want a mom and dad — I mean, it's okay if you pray together, make commitments for your home — but in general, I don't just want standers to join hands and pray together. You know what I think the Lord would be pleased with tonight? If a walker went and found somebody about forty years older than you: "Pray for me. I want to be faithful like you've been faithful." Now, that's easy. Wait — how about if you went to somebody forty years younger than you, and said, "Pray for me. I want to finish this thing strong"? Wonder what would happen if somebody would go up to an elder — a young couple — and say, "We want to make sure our marriage is faithful like yours has been. Pray for us." What would happen if an elder went to a young couple and said, "I want you to pray for us, that God will keep our attitude right in this last season of life." What would happen if a young person went to your parents and said, "Pray for me, that I'll be submitted and follow you"? What would happen if you went to your kids and said, "Pray for me, that God will give me wisdom in how to lead my family in righteousness"?

So we've got to kind of ease into this tonight, because that's awkward. I wish tonight, for— I wish everybody in this house right now, before you pray for anybody else, would throw your hands up to heaven and let your voice come swelling up out of your mouth right now. In the name of Jesus, let Your glory now sanction this moment. Let Your anointing— Come on, pray, pray, pray. Let Your anointing settle on this house, and tear down every idol that has tried to raise itself up in our homes. Tear down every idol. Come on, pray. Pray. Don't stop. Tear down every idol, God, that I've started to worship as a teenager. Show me, God, what I need to clean out of my closet, and what I need to clean out of my computer, and what I need to clean out of my mind. Oh God, show me how I can support the generations coming after me. Show me, God, how I can love those young people, even though they're different than me.

I've done my dead-level best to preach to you the best I know how tonight. Now I'm asking you: please get out of your pew and move. Go find somebody that is not of your generation, and ask them to pray for you. You pray for them. I mean, walk clean across the church and find somebody you don't even know. You say, "But I don't know—" That's fine. Just go say, "Look, I'm not where you are. I need you to pray for me." Go. You're standing there looking at me. I want you to move. Get out, and walk clean to the back, and find some elder, and say, "Elder, I want you to pray for me." Young men, I don't want you to pray with others your same age. I don't just want you to find your friends. I want you to go find somebody that's in a different season of life, and say, "Would you lay hands on me and pray for me?" I dare you, somebody that's about forty-five years old — I dare you to go find one of these kids that's about fourteen, and say, "I know that you might feel awkward, but would you lay hands on me and pray for me? I'm trying to raise my family in righteousness. I'm trying to lift up my family in righteousness."

I don't want you young people to just come up here together and stand with each other. This is an intergenerational prayer meeting tonight. This is a cross-generational prayer meeting. Some of you young preachers, go find one of these pastors and say, "I want you to pray for me, that I'll learn how to walk in anointing. I want you to pray for me, that I'll know how to be pure, clean, and holy." Pray. Pray. Pray, pray, pray. I dare you to humble yourself and go find somebody half your age. You say, "But I've got a better prayer life than them." I understand. But if you'll be obedient to these instructions, God's going to touch you. God will use the prayers of that young man. Don't criticize him. Believe in him. Let him pray for you.

Bless you. Come on. Don't stop praying just because he started singing. We're going to do this a while. When you finish praying with that one, go to somebody else. Thank you. Make His face shine upon you. Pray, pray, pray. Go find somebody. Pray over your family. Pray over your marriage. Pray over your pastor. Pray over your church. Pray over your section. Go ahead. Move to somebody else. Don't stop. We're not done yet. If you finished that prayer, go find somebody else. Pray for me. Pray for me. Pray for me.

That's it. There's blessing in the house. There's blessing in the house. Blessings are coming. Blessings are falling. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Blessed is the man that doesn't stand in the way of sinners.