The fire on the boy. That old boy loved God. Had some real good black, boy, all blacks can sing. Bet you never noticed that. And man, he could. Okay, turn to Matthew four. I'll just start there again. Though I'm not preaching, I don't like doing that. But for this purpose, I don't have much choice. Talk to you, and I'm gonna get on all that tonight. And do, I do wanna thank you for all your gifts and cards. They were tremendous. And stuff you say, I like them cards, what you wrote in them. I'm gonna go back and read them again. And I'll read them again. Oh, man. And I tell you what we need to do. But Luke, all you need to pray for, I'm gonna let him finish his talk Wednesday night. He didn't get all done. But I want you to pray for us right now, will you? Amen. Praise you, God. Oh, Lord. Dear God. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Oh, God. Yes, Father. Yes, Father. Thank you for the health you give us, God. We about lost it all. Thank you, God. We're here because you let us be. A whole lot of grace and capital letters. Yes, Father. God, we want to be a blessing to a lot of people. God, and all them churches coming together this week. All those pastors. God, may we be a real blessing to them. Father. Bless us, God. Hear Him. Hear Him, God. No, I agree. I agree, Lord. I need it. Yes, God. God, you're up something, up something big. God give him words, fitly spoken. Apples of gold and pitchers of silver, dear God. God not exalt him, but exalt you. God, what you've done in his life, God, give that mantle, God, that you've laid aside for this hour. God, may he take it in the moment of his power. God, you anoint him with it. God, quicken him. Oh, God, lead the way. God, you bring it forth. Come on and touch us in the church Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. God, you see me in my soul, God, empower shaman to come. Thank you, God, for that strategic move. Yes, Father. Oh, God, for the great, great things you've done. God, you've set heavenly places. God, with Christ in this place. Oh, God, you took us to places, dear God. God, we thought we'd arrive. God, for greater days ahead. God, we thank you, dear God, to offer the finish of our faith. God, our deliverance. God, I agree with everything he just prayed. God, Holy Ghost, make it acceptable. Lord Jesus, pray for us. With all you pray, we agree with you. Father, we know you never say no to your son. You'll hear him. Yes, Father. Amen. Matthew 4. There's a lot of men and women that if I need prayer, I won't pray for them and he's sure up there. Amen. You know why? Because I'm in his heart. That's why. You can pray for somebody if they're in your heart. That's why I can pray for y'all. You're in my heart. God put you in my heart. And I know I'm in a lot of y'all's hearts. Hallelujah. I hope I'm in all of you. And that's what makes the world go round. Amen. Praise God for people that make you their ministry and they hold you up to God. And that's what I've learned in 40 years. You gotta have it. You gotta have it. You can't go forward without it. One of the great secrets of Percy Ray was his praying people. Oh, man. He didn't just have them there, but he went all over the country. He signed people up. You had to be more qualified about to be in that prayer group and be a preacher. I mean, he wanted you to mean business. He didn't want to waste time, because back then you sent telegrams or letters, and he wanted people sincere. And as you go along, you know, you meet people, and it's worth going to new churches because you get new praying people. If you didn't get but one or two, It'd be worth going there. But all that God's doing, Brother Luke told me he's gonna do that years ago. What he's doing right now. Brother Keith, you saw it too, didn't you? Amen. So praise God for people that know the secrets of God. And God gives, he's give some of y'all, he's put stuff in some of y'all's hearts, you can't even tell it. He ain't even let you tell it. but it's so holy to you and you wouldn't wanna cast your pearls before swine. You gotta be careful telling secrets, ma'am. Somebody make light of that or put some old critical spirit on you and the demons will jump all over you and try to kill your faith. So you tell things when God wants you to. So thank God for all of you and what you said, Melissa, that faith's ever been a perfect pawn. I was hoping she would rap it, you know, with all that rhyming. Can you imagine that? Amen. So I appreciate her and the way she loves my wife and you ladies, hallelujah. Then when Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, verse two of Matthew four, when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungered. Now you know, there wasn't a second wasted in Christ's life, it was all by divine providence. Everything in Christ's life is sovereignty. So, if it's 40 days and 40 nights, there's a real reason for that. And there's a reason for the 40 years. There's a reason all these 40s in the Bible, and I'm not gonna get through all that, but they're so significant. And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command these stones be made bread. Now you got to understand that the Lord had a human body. He didn't have sin, but he had a human body. Now I wouldn't know this, J. Harold Smith done this two times, but they say that on that 40th day, that you receive a hunger unlike anything you could imagine. And that your body starts eating itself, starts consuming organs. And trying to get, what it's doing is pulling all the protein and all the nutrients out of your organs trying to live. And so the Lord at his weakest point physically here, fasting 40 days and nights, and he didn't do like Moses. Moses up there, man, God just give him power. Not even have to eat anything or drink anything. But the Lord went through it all. and suffered, and there was no relief for him. So it comes to the end of the 40 days, and other gospels tell you he was tempted through those 40 days, but here is a culmination. It's like the Ten Commandments. It's a summary of the law. This is the summary of the temptation that Satan put on Christ. It's all about the world, the flesh, and the devil. Now, he answered and said, If it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So thank God for another analogy there, that bread's like the word of God, because you got to have bread. Bread represents food. Give us this day our daily bread. It doesn't just mean a loaf of bread. That's give us this day our needs. It don't just mean food. It means all your needs, your housing, your car, everything. Every need you got, give us this day, our daily bread. But it represents the needs of life. And the Lord said, just like your body must have daily bread, your soul must be fed from the word of God. I've learned that in 40 years. I'll tell you one thing, man, that Bible does something to you. You read it and it'll start reading you. It'll feed your soul. And man, it's like a man getting on drugs. I mean, you get addicted to it and you gotta have it. It's like somebody lifting weights. Brandon back here used to do all that. And Von Ramsey was a big weight lifter. You wouldn't believe it, but I'm telling you, he was at one time. I mean, we won't get into that. But anyhow, If you've ever lifted a lot of weights, you never feel right if you don't do it. Because it releases things in your body that you always need that. And people that walk a lot, they need to keep on walking. And that's why God's Word is, you need to get to the point you start craving it. You gotta have prayer. You gotta have the Word of God. You gotta have the fellowship of God. That's why you pray. That's the Word of God. You want that fellowship. That's what your spirit is hungering for, is fellowship with God. And I'm listening to a song right now. I haven't played it yet, but it goes something like this. Wherever God's presence is, is home. Wherever God's presence is, is heaven. But that's true. I'll tell you one thing, if heaven was made out of mud holes, if God's there, that's heaven. That's what makes heaven heaven, is Christ and us being in a perfect body and being able to enjoy him. Thank God, that's why man was made, I'm stealing this from a catechism, the very purpose of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Hey, we're gonna enjoy God. God's gonna enjoy us. He wants to enjoy us now. You know, you got your grandkids, it's hard to enjoy them if they're asleep. It's hard to enjoy them if they need to sleep. It's hard to enjoy them, them fits and them temper tantrums. But when they get right and got that smile on their face, man, they are a joy. And God wants to enjoy us. He enjoys our love for Him. He enjoys our fellowship with Him. He looks forward to it. I tell you, I don't know why God's that way, but He is. You ain't got no other reason to explain that God would save us other than the fact He enjoys us. He wants to be praised and worshiped and honored and glorified. One day in heaven, we'll do it like we've always wanted to. But we need God. We don't just need God, we need each other. I mentioned this this morning. You cannot, you just cannot make it in this world without fellowship. Everybody needs a soulmate. Boy, I got some, don't y'all? There's a bunch of people in this church I could call anytime, and you'd pray for me. Usually I ain't as close to God as I ought to be, it don't matter. And God wants you to pray, it don't matter. God wants you to pray, he'll hear you. I've had God hear me in major ways, and I wasn't as close to God as I know I ought to be. What's that called? That's grace. God enjoys us. If he's looking for perfection, he wouldn't do nothing with none of us. But we're designed by God. He made us to have to have fellowship. That's like a man is wife, man is children. You got the family relationship. You got the family of God relationship. And what a blessing, man, to be in a church service to where it's free, where God's at, where love's at. Where there's no competition. Where there's no, it's all that analyzing, all criticism, all that mess. And all that gone. They're just the free flow of the Holy Spirit. And church ought to be like that. I mean, praise God. That's what you love, that's what you long for. And God's house ought to be a place, it ought to be a bastion of love and fellowship. I've learned, I mentioned this this morning, I'm gonna go on. I've learned that appearances can be deceptive. You know what? Whole lot of men I started out preaching with, they ain't even in the ministry. Bunch of them. Now, this is these seminaries. I hope to God this ain't true. And it's probably including all your mainline denominations, so this is probably a configuration of all of them. But they say of men that go to Bible college, graduate, by the time they're 60 years old, only 10% will be in the ministry. That's astounding to me. How many men are quitting the ministry? How do you quit on God? He never quit, and I've wanted to. I've thought about it. That's just foolishness. I know there wasn't going to. I know there wasn't going to. I got more pride than that. I ain't got nothing else. I ain't got that much pride. I'll tell you one thing, quitter, man, quit on God, I'd rather die. And I see some old buddies once in a while, I don't ever see anybody much anymore. And they say, hey, you still preaching? I said, what do you think? What else is there to do? But they're asking that to find out, are you another one's quit? You another one out of the ministry? Hey, boy, what I'm trying to say, it's taking me a long time to say this stuff, but appearances can be deceptive. A lot of men start out like a rabbit, some like a turtle, and a lot of times a turtle ends up at the end of the day and the rabbit loses the race. It's not how you start, it's how you finish. People will remember how you finish. And it's so important that you finish right. Now life has many difficulties, many disappointments. I had to learn that. Buddy, you know like that crazy country song, I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden? God didn't either. And even in the rose garden, there's thorns. You gotta go through a lot of thorns to get to the rose sometimes. And life's that way. And when you serve God, here's what I've learned, it's a war. It's a battle you get shot at. If you don't want to get shot at, get out of the battle. If you're going to serve God, you're going to get shot at. And sometimes it's friendly fire. Whoever come up with that ought to change the verbology of that. What it mean friendly fire will kill you. That's what happened to Stonewall Jackson. His own men shot him, accidentally. It's not just fire on the outside, it's fire on the inside. That's what gets a lot of people. And so life's full of disappointments and difficulties, but you can't let that, you know, get you down. You can't let that be a benchmark in your life. Say, well, I know a man right now, he's quit the ministry because of his passion of church, and they done him like a dog. Well, they done crushed like a dog. He didn't quit. Ain't no excuse for that. Now, if a man's got mental problems, he needs to go get help. Hey, there ain't no excuse for quitting. Because God's got enough grace. I tell him, Brother Chad over here, I don't need him holding my hand, I need him carrying me. That's how weak I am. Now, you say, what if you lose your, I ain't talking about losing your health now. If you lose your health, you ain't got no choice. But I'm talking about even if you lose your health, you got to lay around and pray. Don't let it ever be said you quit. God help us to not quit. Hey, there ain't no victory in quitting. You might be in last place and Keith Scruggs, your spotter, But what you're praying for, you're at Talladega. Everybody's gonna wipe out. You gonna get to win. Amen. Or it rains and they call off the race. Everybody went in to get gas and you stayed out there and won. Amen. Hey, if you stay in the race, you can win. Not just your rewards, you'll get other people's rewards, what the Bible says. Now the key to ministry then is one's devotional life. Ministry is investing in people. If you don't love people, you ain't gonna love the ministry. The ministry's people. It's invested in people. It's loving people. I've learned that little is much when God is in it. Amen. Thank God for that little's much. I can't only preach this, I'm about to blow up. I've seen it. I've seen how God does things. He does things just like old Gideon. Gideon's got 32,000, he's facing about 130,000. And God said to Gideon, Gideon says, Lord, I need some more soldiers. God said, no, you don't need more, you need less. He said, what are you talking about? I ain't got enough. He said, you got too many. He got him down to 10,000 and then got him down to 300. He said, now get him. Guess what? Now I can get the glory when you win. God got him down to the point that God will get all the honor and all the glory for what the Lord did. The believer must keep a short list of sin. Don't go to bed with sin in your heart out of fellowship with God. That's what I've learned in 40 years. because it starts piling up. I'm gonna tell you something, I've been there, I'm ashamed of it. I've been there, my heart get cold. I've been there, all bitterness try to get in there. I've been there, unforgiveness try to get in there. I've been there, all kind of stuff try to get in my heart. You know what I gotta do? I gotta go find somewhere and get along with God and not give back until God softens my spirit, God puts love back in me, and God tenderizes my heart. Cause buddy, that's a long, that's a downhill slide right there. I mean, you gotta nip it in the bud right there. I'll tell you something else, I've learned Christ is a head of the church and he's got no rivals. But like Colossians 1 in verse 18, he's the head of the body of the church, who's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. Only the Lord can build his church. It's for him. It's all for him. I want him to know one more time, it's his. I don't want no name, because people get to looking at me, they're going to run the other way. I'm going to try to represent Christ enough to get your eyes on Him. He must have the preeminence. We're not here for self-recognition. God can't use people like that. Some of the greatest talented people in the world can't be used because they're so full of pride, and they want to be recognized publicly, and they won't take the place of a servant, and they won't be a minister, and God can't use people like that. He can't trust them. God help us. God help us. Listen, I'm getting into another sermon I just finished last night. But here is what, named John Wesley. John Newton wrote Amazing Grace. You know what John Newton said? You're gonna hear this again. John Newton said he wrote Amazing Grace. He said, take two angels, send them to earth. Make one a ruler of a kingdom. Have the other angel, God give him a commission to sweep the floors. And to the angels, there's no difference. What's wrong? There's no difference. Because they're doing what the master told them to do. And to them, there's no difference. And to them, they're not doing it for the reward. They're doing it because you ask them. Now, I know we may never get there, but that's the attitude to have. If God sends you to sweep the floor, if God sends you to take out trash, if God sends you to preach, God sends you to teach, whatever God wants you to do, do it, and it ought to make no difference what somebody else is doing. You ought to be excited that God let you do it. I've learned that. I've learned that counted a great honor and a great privilege that God would let you do anything. That God would burden you about anything. That God would provide for you. That God would speak to you. That God will mature you. How about attitude of gratitude? Boy, it's so powerful. Oh God, I wanna thank you for a song book to sing out of. I wanna thank you for Sister Lisa playing this piano. I wanna thank you God for the ensemble up here. Amen. Doing their cantata tonight. I can't even walk without him holding my hand. Thank God for people that love God. Amen. The Lord never asked us to build anything. You can't. How you gonna build a church? How you gonna save people? How you gonna get blind people to see? How you gonna get deaf people to hear? How you gonna give life to dead people? You can't do it. But what we do, we pray. And God, I believe that the church, here's what I've learned in 40 years, the church is like life. The church is like life, and life in the church is like seasons of the year. You got spring planting time. You got the summer when it's maturing time. You got the fall when it's harvest time. You got the winter when it's cold time. And you got a huddle up together to stay warm. The ministry's that way. It's not a harvest every Sunday, unless you're in the spirit of revival. You gotta know where you are. I've learned this in 40 years. You gotta know where you are in Bible prophecy. You gotta know of the day we're living in, in this Laodicean church age, and we're near the end of it. Oh, but thank God that Church of Philadelphia will be here with an open door, no banking shut, and that's what we wanna be in this hour. But you got to understand, How are we living in? What's happening in the world? We're seeing it, and it's all that apostasy. Here we are in the middle of trying to do something for God. Church got to be built on Christ. I don't know if y'all remember this man. Some of you older ones probably do. You ever heard of Jack Hudson? Pastor Northside Baptist Charlotte, every Sunday night, every Sunday night I listen to him. When I first started preaching, that man suffered all week. He couldn't hardly get out of the chair all week. Stand up on Sunday and preach. I'm telling you, that man had a way with God's Word. Man, he was so powerful. And here was his motto. Make much of Jesus. That's his motto. That's his church motto. And then somebody else come along and said, if you'll make much of Jesus, he'll make much out of you. Boy, that's right. Brother Mays Jackson told me this probably 35 years ago. I said, Brother Mays, what about this preacher here and that preacher over there? Look what they're doing. He said, I'll tell you something, young man. He said, any preacher that makes his main message anything but Christ, he'll make his rounds and he'll run the race. He'll be done and nobody want to hear him. But when you build the ministry primarily on Christ and loving him, and honoring him. You'll always have somewhere to preach because God wants to send men that'll make much out of Jesus. That's the same way at the church. That's why God's a blessing y'all. That's why he's doing what he's doing. We're making much out of Christ. Make much out of him. Praise God. We hear his name. It ought to make our heart jump. The number one responsibility of a pastor is to let God have his way. Just let him have his way. Just do what he wants. And the main thing, see, I gotta walk in a way, and God's gotta touch me in a way, that you got confidence in how I'm trying to lead you. And boy, you get those two things together, you got something. You don't get that overnight. God has me do things that don't make no sense to you, and you say, man, he must have missed it there. Well, he may have and he may not. Cause some things take years. to prove if God was in things or not. Now, my personal life, here's what I've learned in 40 years. In my personal life, my spiritual life, the greatest challenge I've got, which is my greatest responsibility, and it's the key to everything, The prayer life in all is this right here, is the first and second commandment, the great commandments. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind, all thy strength. It says it a little different in different places. And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets. That's the answer to everything. And that's the challenge of my life. If I love God like I ought to, I love people like I ought to. Oh God, keep my heart in love with you. To do much, here's what I've learned in 40 years. To do much for God, you gotta be much with God. You gotta get God's mind, you gotta pump that word in your mind so God reprograms you and you start thinking like the Lord thinks. The church is about relationships. It's about building relationships. It ain't about building crowds. It's about building people and building relationships. And when you build relationships and the love that is manifested through all that, that's when people wanna have what you got. Quality is more important than quantity. Here's what I've learned in 40 years. He who kneels before God shall stand before men. There shall no man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, I'll be with thee. That's not just for the preacher, that's for you. Praise God. God can put that kind of power and authority on you that you stand before men with God's authority on your life. I've learned, thank God, to battle as the Lord's. It ain't my battle. I ain't gotta fight it. I just gotta show up on the battlefield. And the Lord directs the stones. Amen. Well, aren't you glad how God does these things? He allowed old Goliath to stand out there. He'd march out two times a day, 40 days, 80 times. That is 40 plus one, or that's two 40s, 80. Of course, I know you know that. And so I'm trying to emphasize 40. So he made a big mistake in the morning, David heard him. In the evening, he's screaming in hell. Amen. He ought to go. He deserved to go, and that's what he needed to do, because he's a devil. He's up there challenging God, taunting God, taunting the armies of Israel, and God had old David out there, and David said, the battle's the Lord's. Saul said, you can't take him. I said, I ain't gonna take him. I ain't gonna fight him. I ain't lost my mind. I'm gonna let God fight him. All I'm gonna do is let that rock go. Amen. Praise God. That's the first rock and roll right there. Amen. Boy, I'm telling you, old David, when God, when he let that stone go, he was a marksman. He taught all of Israel how to use a sling. But David, I'm telling you, that thing went through that helmet that man had on, unless he had it flipped up. But there's a shot. It knocked him out. David went up there and cut his head off. I tell you, hallelujah, God's letting Israel see how weak they were. They were under Saul, and they didn't have God's power on them. But God can raise up. The youngest man on the battlefield had no experience in warfare. He had experience in killing a lion and a bear, but he had no experience on the battlefield. And God used, the Bible says, the stripling of the lad. He's a stripling. He probably weighed 110 pounds. Went out there and defeated for Goliath to have all that armor he had on and carry it like he did. He had to weigh 600 pounds at least, and he was about 10 foot tall. 600 pounds. Man, that's a big one, ain't it? Hear what somebody said? Said, David, look how little you are. Yeah, he said, look how big Goliath is. Said, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And look what done to Israel. Look what that done to Israel. When a shepherd boy, probably 15 or 16, went out there and defeated the champion. He's a champion from his youth. He'd never been defeated. Of course, he'd been dead. He's backed down armies all over that part of the world. Because they would challenge one man. Goliath stepped out there and said, send me a man. whoever wins, the other side will be their servants. You know why they said that? Because they didn't think there was a snowball chance in hell of David winning. They didn't think even Saul could whoop Goliath. Here's the one Saul out there. And Saul would have melted like snow. In 120 degrees, absolutely. Because he didn't have God's hand on him. He didn't have God's power. And God, oh, God let Israel see. Boy, that's what God lets us see in the ministry. How sometimes these cornbread boys, sometimes these cornfield boys, man, they don't even know of Psalms from Pisms. Or Job from Job. Man, they call the wiles of the devil the willies of the devil. People ain't found them old preachers, but they had the power of God on them. And God saved people, and God changed lives, and God blessed churches. That's what we see in the ministry. It's not how sharp somebody is, it's how much God's on them. Now, perfect scenario is to be polished. I ain't no doubt about that. I wouldn't know a thing about it, because I ain't. But, best case scenario is Adrian Rogers. Man got the, they say he had the most perfect preacher's voice there's ever been. And he had a delivery, and he had the old-time, old-fashioned beliefs. Man, I love that man. He's in heaven now. And if I could show you a perfect preacher, it'd be him. And man, he could go speak before kings and queens. I mean, he's eloquent. I mean, this guy's sharper than a drawer full of knives. That's how sharp he was. But he's always on. And he always depended on God. He preached on prayer all the time and the Holy Spirit all the time. But I'm so glad God's got us boys that ain't like that. He's got some of us in the corner of the field where they raise the seed corn. Everybody out there in the middle of the field with a big John Deere tractor. Thank God God let some of us use a mule in the side of that field and get the job done where that big tractor can't get to. I've told you this, W.A. Cresswell said, many years ago, he's president of the Southern Baptist Convention. This years ago, probably 50 years ago or more, he told the men down there, cause back then the country preachers couldn't go to that big convention. That's all there was back then, that's where the independents got out. And you know, the average man couldn't even go to them. They didn't have no money, they had to work, they was bivocational. And just the big First Baptist guys and the big fancy church guys all at once could go. And on W.A. Crestwell Bustin' Air Bubble, he said, we've done a study, 85% of all of our preachers come out of the small rural churches or the small mountain churches. He said the greatest preaching that's going on in America is not going on here. He said it's going on, he said, up there in the mountains of the Carolinas or Virginia or East Tennessee. He said there's some preachers up there, they've been working all day. They got home and the wife had the white shirt ready and the suit and they eat some little old meal, hit the road to go preach revivals and give it their all. He said, that's the greatest preaching going on in America. I'm so glad God set this stuff up. Never despise a day of small things. Don't despise a young man. He might not have no what he's doing, but if God's hands on him, boy, he'll bless your soul. Boy, God magnified the weakness of Israel. Now I'm not trying to exalt ignorance. I'm just talking about praise God, how God can use different kind of people. And now you know what I've learned 40 years? That the lame take the prey. It's not the strong. The strong take nothing. Cause they'll rob God of the glory. The lame take the prey. It's the weak people that get something done. Amen. I've learned in 40 years to bring all your burdens to the Lord and leave them there. I've learned in 40 years that a preacher must have three things in his life. He's got to stay balanced. He's got to stay burdened, and he's got to stay broken. I've also found out in 40 years, every preacher's got to find his crowd. Praise God, I found mine. I found mine. Well, my crowd is you. You know what my crowd is, these young preachers? It's how I'm a crowd. It's how people praise God. It's going the same direction. Amen. I ain't worried about what color shirt you got on, it's a bunch of foolishness. I ain't worried about if you got wingtip on or boots or tennis shoes, it don't matter. I ain't talking about being unpresentable. I'm just talking about men that knows the main thing. You gotta keep the main thing, the main thing. Amen. Balanced, burdened, and broken. Man's gotta find his own crowd. When you find your own crowd, you're comfortable around them. These old boys come in here yesterday. I'll tell you something, we didn't even send the word out to a bunch of them. You know why? We know we couldn't get them in here. And a lot of them wanna come, couldn't come. Hey, that's my crowd. Amen. There's a whole lot more than can get to come and come. You know why? Because this church has made an impression on them. Because you made an impression on me. And you let me go where I could develop what God put in my heart. Without this church, I would not be where I'm at. I wouldn't even be alive. And I assure you with me, I give God the glory and thank you for it. I want you to know I found my crown. I feel comfortable around him. You take old brother Terry Roberts, he probably ain't hardly nobody in America knows who he is, but I'm comfortable around him. Amen. You take old brother Von Ramsey, I'm comfortable around him. You take Keith Williams, I'm comfortable around him. I could go down the row and mention these men. Thank God, Brother Randy Hobbs, these men. Hey, I'm not trying to analyze they got everything right. I ain't even got everything right. Thank God for men that God's on them and you feel comfortable around them. Amen. You know what? I've learned in 40 years in the ministry, often those you think and expect would help you don't. And those you never thought would help you do. Now that ain't always so, but that's so a lot. I mean, here's somebody, they just heard about you. And they love you before they even meet you. Cause God puts that in them. And God puts you in people's hearts. And you just stand back in amazement. So they say, well, I've been listening to you on tape. I've been hearing, you know, all this stuff. And God just does these things. And God lets you find people. You can help them, they can help you. That's why God's gonna be in this stuff. Many of whom I never expected, and God put me in their hearts. It's like Dr. Ray used to say. He said when he first started preaching, Oh, he turned down that big Hollywood contract, 1932. $300,000 in 1932. How many million would that be today? Son come up. Son come up. He's seen two things. He's seen people screaming in hell that he should have reached. He saw Jesus on the cross. He never got over that. And he tore that contract up. Man, I mean, his whole family, all of them looking forward and put them on, you know, on Rich Street. Man, when the word got out, he turned that down. All their neighbors sent sympathy cards to their family. That's right. His own mama got so mad at him. She got converted later. His own mother got so mad at him. He was going to preach on a Sunday night. Now I'm not going to tell you where he was going because we ain't going to get in all this stuff. He was going to preach for some people you ain't supposed to be preaching to in them days. And he got down there and God saved 12 or 13. He had to take his shoes off and wade through the creek to get down. She said, you go preach to them blankety blank blanks, you never come out of my wounded, don't you come back here. That's when he preached there that night, went walking from from Colibet, Mississippi, French name, Colibet, and Walnut, and went up, headed toward Tennessee. He got up Tennessee and took a ride. He ended up at Hornsby, Tennessee, out there at the Little Hatchy. That little hatchy schoolhouse. He walked by that schoolhouse and the Holy Ghost said, get in there and preach. Man, it was forsaken. There's spiders all in there. And one of them schoolhouses is out of business. It's about to fall down. Old Dr. Ray said he obeyed God. He went in there and got the preaching man and you know, boy, you talk about a loud voice. Now he had one. And man, he got the roaring. And people got the peeping around the trees. And they started to work God out. And they started to get, cause they didn't hear no preaching back then. They got to gather around. Old Charlie Hannah come up to him, had the yard full of people. Charlie Hannah come up to him and said, son, you want to go home and eat tonight? He said, well, I guess I do, cause I ain't got nowhere else to go. He said, well, I'm going to go feed you. And would you come back tonight and scream at us again? No, he said, holler at us. That's what he said. Would you holler at us again? And man, he went home that night and next morning had no, like a 29 Chevrolet car, something like that. And he said, now son, I want you to take this car and these keys and I want you to go all day. He said, there ain't hardly nobody saved around here and I want you to go and don't you come back to dark. You come back at dark and we'll feed you. And he come back that night, they'd built like the Shunammite woman's little old house for Elijah. And they built a room on there. I've seen that, it's still standing. I've seen that room they built on that house. And it's down at Hornsby, Tennessee. And old Charlie Hannah told him that night, said, now, now don't get offended at this, ladies. He said, now, talking to brother Ray, said, me and the old lady here, That's back when men were men. That's back when they were stupid. He said, me and the old lady here ain't never been able to have a child. We always want a son. He said, would you be our son? Amen. I don't know why I'm telling this, but I really do. And man, they took him in. He stayed there for a couple of years. Had all that revival, meal shed revival. Man, had all them people got saved, Hornsby Baptist Church, and they all was barefooted. Hardly none of them had any shoes. And they wore overalls. And the women made their dresses out of fertilized sacks. Right. That's poverty. So, revival breaks out at the old mill shed up in Hornsby. He sends word down there at the Little Hatchie Baptist Church. He said, I need y'all to come up here and pray. He wanted them to pray, do that seven day prayer thing around the clock. And he said, I need you to come up here and pray. They said, Brother Ray, we can't come. He said, why? They said, we ain't got no shoes. We ain't dressed right. They'd look down on us. That's them town people. He said, don't you worry about how them people look down on you. Come on up there and do what God just saved y'all. Y'all come up there and pray. I mean, God got the moving Satan people by the hunters and stopped the train. The tracks are still there. He stopped the train. And the men's under so much conviction pulled them off that train and they got converted. Amen. Now, buddy, that's God moving. Dr. Ray said, said my own family, of course, they all got right later on. He said, my own family turned against me. Now his daddy never did, his momma's insight and all that stuff. He said, he said, now my family rejected me. He said, but God has given me mommas and daddies, given me children all across America. He said, ain't a state I can go into, ain't got beds I can sleep in. All I gotta do is call people. He didn't like motels, he liked staying in homes. He said, I got them all over America, places I can go stay. He said, God, Has got people loving me, but don't even know why they love me. God makes them love me. I've learned that God can put you in people's hearts. Man, they'll fight for you. You know what I've learned in 40 years, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. The real enemy ain't people, it's the devil. The spirit, and what Satan does, he sows that spirit in people. What they do, they get bitter at something, then he empowers that. Or they get unforgiveness, whatever. And resentment, hatred. And whenever, listen, whenever that old critical spirit gets in us, man, we better get to God. Hey man, I learned what Jesus said. If they hated me, they sure gonna hate you. And that's true. And these people won't like you, and you can't figure out why. because there ain't no reason. Don't waste your time trying to get people that don't like you to like you. Because a lot of people, you don't even show much attention to them to like you, so it ain't that. You got to get over this stuff. You have to let it go and realize, hallelujah, you in good company, you get persecuted just a little bit. We ain't never been much. I've learned, hallelujah, that, uh, Praise God, I've been overlapping some of this stuff. I'm a priest type of this. Hey man, let me get down here to something I ain't said yet. In the ministry, among preachers and singers, there's so much jealousy. It is, listen, I hate to tell y'all this. Anybody start out in the ministry, you better know this. You better know this. And there's some people that have become your enemy. And as much, listen, I don't know why I'm this way. I'd rather have a toothache than accuse somebody of jealousy. I just can't stand the thoughts of that. Because I think if you're jealous, what in the world is wrong with you? There ain't nothing about me being jealous. What are you, crazy? I mean, pick somebody else who's got some skills and some talents, not me. But there's some people get, there's no other reason for it and you know it. God reveals it to you. You know what you do? Stay away from them. You can't fix it. They'll cut you up while they smile in your face. You can't help jealous people. Now if God does something in their heart, all right. But if they, hey, I'm telling you, it's the awfulest thing ever getting in somebody's heart. Cause it turns them into monsters. And they're mean and they're cruel. They'll misrepresent you, exaggerate things about you, misapply what you try to say, and the average Baptist church member loves you, you can mess up and say damn things stupid, and they'll overlook it because they know what you mean, and they know you's probably, man, half out in space somewhere, ain't got enough sleep or something, you know? And love covers a multitude of sin, and these jealous critics, they'll take every word you say, they'll hold it against you for 40 years, they won't let it go. And you know it's sad because there ain't no fellowship there. Amen. Praise the Lord. I'm just telling you some stuff I've learned in 40 years. Don't live to please men. I've learned that in 40 years. Flee youthful lust. You better be like Joseph. Tell you one thing, a man's eyes will kill him. There ain't nothing more dangerous about a man and his eyes. That's right. And if you ain't got a problem with your eyes, you ain't a man. Because ain't nothing more beautiful to a man than a woman. That's right. I hope it's your wife. That's my beautiful woman, my wife. But, that's why, always pornography. You can't serve God watching that stuff. That's committing adultery in your heart. You can't do it. You can't do it. And ain't nothing a man'd rather do than that. I'm just being honest now. That's in a man's flesh, women. You better keep your husband satisfied. You'll help keep him out of a lot of trouble. Am I telling it right, men? It's exactly right. I'll tell you, praise God. That's why God gives a man and wife relationship. Man's to find enjoyment in his wife. Flee youthful lust. I'll tell every young preacher, if you're a young preacher, don't watch television. That's right. You better make a couple of your eyes if you ain't married. But you got to be extra on guard, because there's enough hell on a cell phone to damn a million people every day. And it's everywhere you go, it's there. You can't escape it. Therefore, you got to be disciplined. Hey, I mean, you got to be disciplined and full of God. Keep your mind on God. Have that old temptation come on a man, get in my Bible and start reading it. Call up some preacher. Call up some, you ain't gonna tell everybody. I don't believe in doing that. You ain't gonna tell everybody all your baggage. I'm having a problem, pray for me. If your wife can't trust you, a church can't trust you. Amen. You remember Ross Perot? Rush Limbaugh said he's a hand grenade with a bad haircut. Yeah, Ross Rose run against Bill Clinton. He said, I don't trust him. A man's wife can't trust him, I don't trust him. He said it on national TV. He said, you work for me in leadership. You commit adultery on your wife, and he don't, but that was common manner. You work in leadership and you commit adultery on your wife, he'll fire you. He said, if your wife can't trust you, I can't trust you. You know what Ryan told me? My boy, he's old fashioned about this stuff right here now. He told me yesterday, no, day before yesterday. He said, I was talking to a man, and he said, there's a man under him involved with all the money. And he said, that man involved with all the money, been running around with his wife. And I said, you fire him? He said, no. I said, why didn't you? If he's living a double life, how are you trusting him with all that much money? He said, I still believe a man ought to have some character. What about that? That sound like his grandpa talking. What I've learned in 40 years, I've learned, praise God, the victory is in the spirit of God and the word of God. Old Dr. Ray, man, he's wanting God's power. He wanted to beat Billy Sunday. He was about to kill himself wanting the power of God. He's reading every book he could get. He's about to kill himself seeking God for the power. And he said he's up in Illinois one night and he got out walking to a cornfield to beg God to fill him with power. And the Holy Ghost said, take all your books. had all of his books in a sack, said, take all them books and take them out there and throw them away. He said, my power's in my word. You preach my word, live right, power will be there when you need it. Brother McAbee told me he started out, he about went crazy trying to get the power in him like Moody. Well, number one, if you ain't Moody, you ain't gonna get that. Go ahead and face yourself to death. You ain't twisting God's arm to put his hand on you if he ain't chose to. He said for six months, I read all him books. He wanted to be like Percy Ray. It make me want to be like Percy Ray. He said about drove myself crazy. He said six months of that, I was in Bible college. He got right with God in the Navy, preaching on the ships, but he got out. He said, the Holy Ghost one day said, Ed, that was their day, this is your day. I anointed them for their day and I'll anoint you for your day. Now you forget this stuff and go on and preach my word. There's gotta be a time, I believe in seeking God's power, but there's come a time that you gotta rest in what God's will is. Run from temptation to the Lord. Amen. Seek the fullness of God, the victories in the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and in faith. I've learned, man, I've learned, I guess you'll think, man, you must have been stupid before you started preaching. You learned all this stuff. I've learned there's no shortcut to maturity. None. You get saved full of the Spirit of God instantly. You can do that. But you cannot have wisdom and maturity without experience. It takes it. And with that maturity and wisdom in years of living right comes influence. Some lessons, dear young people, some lessons only time can teach you. Then, praise God, I've learned that it is necessary to grow old in order to grow in grace. Oh yeah. I've learned in 40 years to acquire a measure of patience. You gotta grow old. Tribulation work of patience. God works patience in us through the years. It takes years to learn how to walk in humility. Oh yeah. It takes years to learn how to be gracious, how to be charitable, how to be merciful to others. I've learned in 40 years that to receive mercy from others, I must have mercy on them. And I better have mercy on you because one day I'm gonna need it. I've learned in 40 years that the Lord cares more about what I become than what I do. What does the Bible say It's the primary goal of a Christian, of the Holy Spirit working in your life. I gotta quit, I ain't a 730 man. What is it? What's the deal here? The deal ain't what you do. The deal is you becoming Christ-like. And you become Christ-like and your doing will be right. So God's more concerned in what you become than what you do. God wants to look down at us and see Christ in us more and more and more. And then I've learned in 40 years, it takes years to gain a proper appreciation for the ones that have stood by you. It does. I've learned it takes years to have a real appreciation for those that helped you coming up, for those that invested in your life. I've learned in 40 years how totally unable I am, my inability to please God without him enabling me. I've learned in 40 years that when I'm weak, I'm strong. Amen. I've learned in 40 years that without God, I can do nothing. I've learned in 40 years that I ain't learned much in 40 years. I've learned that when I see faults in other people, that I need to be real careful that God may be letting me see that to look at myself, and I might be worse than them. I've learned, hallelujah, I'm glad I learned this, salvation is of the Lord. I don't have to save anybody, he does that. Amen. I've learned, hallelujah, that all that really matters, Christ. He must have the preeminence. I've learned that Christ is all and in all, that I'm complete in Him. I've learned that God will provide for His people. I've learned the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord or established by the Lord. He delighteth in His way. I've learned to please God, not man. I've learned that people don't care what I say until they know I care. Right. Now, I've not mastered none of these things, I've just learned them. I don't mean I'm doing all of them, but I know these things are right. I've learned, hallelujah, there's much grace in humility. I've learned that people want a preacher to be real and not try to project a facade that he's got it all together when they know he ain't. That's what makes people mad. Somebody up strutting like some rooster, acting like they somebody when they know how full of thoughts he is. To be great before God and man, you must take the place of a servant. Now, I've learned in 40 years, I've learned this. I may not always do it, the grace among you, servant of all. I've learned in 40 years to try to be positive. Hey, man, the joy of the Lord makes you positive. Be positive about things. I've learned, hallelujah, always try to give people hope. I told you that this morning. Preacher Hastings told me, he said, son, don't ever leave people when you preach without hope. I've learned that only God can draw people to you, that'll love you, support you, pray for you, have mercy on you, and give you the benefit of the doubt. I done said all that, I just said it again. I've learned in 40 years, there's more blessing to give than to receive. I've learned that people will never forget your acts of kindness and mercy. Amen, they'll remember it. That's why we need to praise God, represent Christ. You know, you try to give somebody something and they say, no, don't do that. Say, the Lord, this is from the Lord, ain't from me. The Lord wants you to have this. I've learned that to reach people, you got to build relationships with them. I've learned that your family is your first and greatest and most important ministry. And man, I learned that too late. I learned that I don't always love God like I should. And I tell these young preachers this. I don't always love God like I should, but I fear him. But you better fear him. Cause you ain't always gonna love him like you should, but you better fear him. And I do. Amen. My dad told me, sister Lisa, you go. My dad told me, I've said this, I'm gonna just say it one more time. Cause I just, I don't know how it is. It's like the disciples when they were with Christ and they forgot most of what he said, they sure didn't understand it. And Jesus said, when the Holy Ghost has come, he'll bring his things, your remembrance. And that's why they remember to perfection. All these sermons Christ preached, there wasn't nobody taking notes. The Holy Spirit brought it. He brought back that very day, the conversation. And they seen the Lord and they wrote down what he said. That's what the Holy Spirit did. He brought all those things to their remembrance. And it's like some supernatural thing goes on sometimes, how I remember these things my daddy told me. And I shouldn't remember them, but I do. And the night I was ordained, I remember what he told me. I don't remember what nobody else told me, and I don't know why. It's a blank. Well, I do remember him, you know, coming by, we praying for you and put your hands down. That's a blessing. But not no specific thing besides that. My daddy told me, don't you ever betray the trust and the confidence people just put in you. That hounds me to this day. Amen. Then I got to hear that old brother Charles Raleigh preached on some things you can never take back. My goodness. God put a ton of fear in me. You know why? Because I don't let him down, but I don't want to suffer the consequence. You say, well, I've messed up in life. Well, you can't go back and relive it, can you? I've messed up enough for all of us. So let's just serve God. You say, I wish I'd done that. Well, you know, a lot of things in my life since I started preaching, I'm not burdened as much as I did as what I didn't do. That's what burdens me more than what I didn't do. So I say to everybody who hears this, and everybody I've ever preached to, I want you to forgive me for at times being too hard. That's right. Being too hard. Preaching anger, aggravation, frustration. It ain't right. It's sin. It's sin. When Moses struck the rock twice, he did it in anger. He didn't just break the tap. God said, you didn't give glory to me. You was angry with them when I wasn't angry at them. And you dishonored me the way you treat them people. Don't you know me and God's had our rounds about that? All you can do is hope people forgive you. And I hope you can see some growth in grace. Not just grace, grace. Amen. Where would we all be tonight if we hadn't met Sister Aldrin, our cookin', you know? She ain't the only one. Some of you women in here, I don't see how your husband's not 500 pounds. Thank you for all your food and all your gifts. Man, this church loaded me down. Y'all been good to me. Amen. Amen. I'll never forget Brother Ben called me. I didn't have no clue. But see, here's what happened. I got so frustrated. I mean frustrated with evangelism. That's all I ever wanted to do. And I got frustrated with it because I kept jerking my youngins around and they wasn't in a regular Sunday school. I couldn't stand that. It got to bother me. I wanted that stability in their life. And God had to get me to the place, to where I needed to be, so I'd obey His will. It wasn't nothing to do with the people that were here then. All the peoples here then, they're great people. It's the stigma, and I knew that. But the people here, the people I come here to, just the greatest, oh man, great people. I mean, wonderful people. Love me, put up with my stupidity and my craziness, and love me through it. If I ever amount to anything, I'm telling you, this church done it. That church can make a bad preacher a good preacher. Amen. Or they can take a good one and kill him. I ain't saying y'all been perfect. You ain't no more been perfect than I have. Sometimes we get slack on God and all this stuff. But I'll thank God for you. And I wanna, as I grow older, have more of a greater appreciation for my wife, my children, this church, people putting investment in me. People prayed for me. Man, I'm looking forward to going to heaven, Sister Lisa, to find out so many people prayed for me, I don't even know. That's God's way, buddy, is prayer, God's Word. I tell you what, let's just stand, if you will. We'll bow our heads a moment. You know what? I guarantee you, we're gonna take a little test tonight.