I'm gonna preach topical tonight with the Lord's help. In Acts chapter nine. I simply wanna read verse 31. Then had the churches rest. Why? Because they were troubled. They were persecuted. They were being beaten, killed, imprisoned. Throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. And the Bible said this, we're multiplied. I just want to take part of that verse. I want to preach tonight with the Lord's help and the Lord must help me. But I want to preach on the comfort of the Holy Ghost. The comfort, I think each one of us would have an idea of what comfort is. As we unfold this through the word of God, I wanna look mostly at comfort and then look at the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost. Discomfort is an unrest, it is an uneasiness. Some that are discomforted are just flat out miserable. And by the way, that's most people. It's why this world is doped and medicated whether illegal or legal medications to fog the mind, to block the mind, to block the conscience because there's no comfort in their life. To be honest, there's very few churches in this land as a whole that even can walk in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. There's unrest, there's uneasiness, it's money-driven, money-motivated. There's great debts to buy buildings, to build bigger barns, to try to attract people, and then those debts are laid on the people, and there's no comfort or rest in the churches. When you find a family, you find a church, and you find people that are walking in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, you'll find yourselves a peculiar people. Those of you that are saved, I do pray that you would take this to heart tonight. to make sure that you are walking, not just in the ways of God, not just the fear of the Lord, but in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Those of you that are lost without Christ, you can be rest assured that there is a place of comfort. The old songwriter said it best, it's near to the heart of God. With the Lord's help, I want to look at the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and to do so, we must go to Genesis 5 first. I'm going to turn to some of these, and then I'll just read some of these for the sake of time, or maybe I'll just kind of summarize some of these. I believe there's enough trust with you and I to do that. In Genesis 5, Lamech is 82 years old, or 182 years old, and he begat a son. The Bible said this, he called his name Noah, saying, this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. So he called him Noah because of the comfort that he would bring. Why? Because the labor, the toil, there is not rest in toil, there is not rest in labor. There is oftentimes a sweat associated with labor, there is discomfort associated with labor. Some of you will learn, some of you may not, but you'll probably learn as you get older, you'll find out that labor will bring discomfort that you never experienced. I learned just recently it's not really labor, although it became labor, I despise it, but sports to me now are a labor because of the discomfort that they bring. I could go play badminton in the backyard and tomorrow I won't be in comfort. I'll be miserable. And can I say this, on the physical level, my wife and I, when we got married, I had a pretty good mattress I'd bought before I went into evangelism, but it was getting a little bit lumpy, and so we went and got a deal and got a bargain and got one of those nice three-inch memory foam gel cooling mattress toppers with the puffy top, and I told my wife, listen, we'll get them on clearance at Kohl's, we got a good deal on some 100% cotton, you know, I don't know how many thread counts, because when I'm in bed, I wanna be comfortable. We run the heat at an appropriate level, that means really, really low, and then my wife piles blankets on for herself. Why? Because we both want to be comfortable. And that's the way it ought to always be. I've said this of church, this is a doctrinal statement, this is not just my opinion, but I think church ought to be freezing cold. There's two reasons why. One, the preacher wouldn't sweat as bad and wouldn't have the risk of getting pneumonia going out in the cold night air, and then people might finally start putting some clothes on. So I'm always a big fan of air conditioning in the church, in the winter. Anyway, that's just me, though. Don't get upset about that. Noah was a comfort to his people. He gave them relief from the toil, from the labor. He was a comfort to them. Go to Genesis 18, if you would, and I'll just show this first, and then I'll talk about a couple of others. But I wanna see where the Bible speaks often of food being a comfort. Now, in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, we realize that's the bread of life, which is the word of God, Jesus Christ, and that's the comfort that he gives us, and the food associated therewith. And it's interesting, this food associated here, there's a couple things. It's always a picture of Christ, but in Genesis 18, five, Moses is there in the plains of Mamre, and of course, he sees the three men coming to him. And he says, verse four, a little water, I pray you be fetched. Wash your feet, rest yourselves under the tree. And I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts. And so he tells them in the picture here, the reality is that that bread will be a comfort to your heart. And I'll be honest with you, obviously because of dietary restrictions, I don't eat bread anymore, but if I am going to cheat just a little bit, it's gonna be warm bread. There's a little Italian place by us that, I try not to go there too much, but we sneak in there once in a while and they make fresh baked Italian bread and they bring it with your salad or your meal. And if I'm gonna cheat a little bit, I'm gonna get some fresh, hot, out of the oven Italian bread with a couple pounds of butter on it. Why? Because it's a comfort. Today, we're at a place that had some good, hot, sweet cornbread. I told my wife, I'm gonna cheat a little bit. So I put two little pats of butter in the middle of the cornbread, and then ate the butter, and there's a little bit of corn on it, amen. But it was a comfort. And so we see bread is used as a comfort. And we see that again in Judges, two different times, we see that man that has the concubine, of course, the awful story there in Judges 19, but two different times, the host tells that man, stay and eat, I'm gonna have a morsel of bread, we're gonna have a meal, we'll have bread, and it'll be a comfort to you. And he said, I will comfort you. We see over in the Song of Solomon, we talked about those apples. And he brought me to the banqueting house. His banner over me was love. And then he said that he'd comfort me with flagons of wine and apples. Why? Because, again, you know, we're Americans. There's nothing quite like comfort food, like apple pie, warm apples like we had last night, and we'll thank the Lord for that. And there's a picture of a comfort there. And so we see food as a comfort. It's something we can all associate with. It's something we can all understand. There's times that just a good meal is a comfort. There's times that's why when there's a funeral, the ladies of the church often will get together and they'll have a meal for the family. And you don't cook weird, goofy, exotic dishes for comforting. No, you cook simple American things for comforting. Americans, when you cook, it depends on the culture. You might cook a nice pot of beans or something like that. Why? Because it's a comfort to people. It's something they're familiar with. It's something they can, it'll put them at ease and bring them comfort. So three different times, there's another one I won't get into tonight, but in the Bible we see that food is associated with comfort. Secondly, I want to say this, we also see this relationships. I'm just going to go through these fairly quickly. We'll look at Job in just a moment. But relationships are often associated with comfort. Jacob, when he thinks that Joseph is dead, they bring him the coat of colors, and of course, the raiment there is bloody, and he thinks that he's been slain by wild beasts, and he would not be comforted. And his family came around, and what were they trying to do? They were trying to bring comfort to him. They were trying to lift him up in a time of sorrow, in a time of hardship. They brought comfort to him. Relationships can bring comfort. Now let me just go ahead and say this too. There is the antithesis of that. In both these areas, there are some foods that will not bring you comfort. I've had some terrible things in my life. I've made some terrible things in my life. There was no comfort in them. Because there are relationships that will not bring you comfort, but we're talking about relationships that can bring you comfort. Right relationships, the fellowship of the brethren. Again, in time of mourning, the time of sorrow, that's why we weep with those that weep. We go down to the house of mourning with those that mourn, why? In an attempt to comfort them. We want to bring a level of comfort, and I know it seems so fleeting sometimes, it seems so out of sorts at times, but we want to bring comfort in relationships. Ruth, in chapter two, you don't have to turn to, but Ruth at the feet of Boaz was seeking, and listen, it wasn't for the purpose of fornication. She wasn't playing the harlot. She was worried people would think that, but she goes into this strange man. He's in the house of the harvest, and she lays down at his feet, and eventually he takes and covers her with his garment to bring her comfort. And he wanted to comfort Ruth. He saw as the widow she was suffering. He saw the earnestness of her seeking. He saw the desire of her coming to him. And so he comforted her. He provided her with protection. Can I say protection is a comfort. You sleep better when you feel safe. We were at the zoo there yesterday and we marvel, I always marvel at the mountain lion. And it doesn't look like my daughter's calling it kitty cat. And yet, if you're out in the wilds of the West and you come across a mountain lion, unless you are quick on the draw and have enough draw to deal with it, you're probably a dead man. That little slinky little cat will just tear you to pieces. And yet he's such a docile, beautiful little animal in the zoo. You just want to scratch him under the chin. And we were watching the grizzly bears dig a hole. They were digging their winter den. And he's digging each swipe of the paw with probably two shovels that I would dig. And that's shovels I couldn't even lift. And just one swipe of his paw, he's sweeping about two bushels of earth out of the ground. And what a beautiful, docile creature. But if I'm out in the wilds and under those mountain lions and those grizzly bears, you know what? I'm not going to sleep well. There's no comfort in that. Listen, I can take my bed from home and my 300 thread count sheets and my handmade quilt, well, handmade in China quilt, and I can do all of those things, and I can be out there in perfect 48 degree air conditioning, all the comforts of home, but there's just one thing missing. There's no comfort, there's no rest, because I'm not at ease. And relationships ought to put us at ease. Relationships, listen, there ought not be tension. There ought not be strife. There ought not be bitterness and envying. If you have that bitter envying in your heart, we know that's not of God. It's something that needs to be dealt with. Jealousies need to be dealt with. Why? Relationships ought to never, can I use a, I don't want to sound like a contemporary modern preacher. I despise that garbage, but you ought not be edgy with people. You ought to be able to put people at ease. That's what a relationship does. Listen, I'm not one of these super spiritual giants. Listen, you live how you live and you raise your family how you raise your family. I'm not your home police and your family police to rule over you. And people get around the preacher sometimes they get nervous like they have to justify everything they do. Listen, I don't want people to feel that way around me. You live how you choose to live at home, but we're going to choose to live how we live at home. And if we live differently, I can still love you for who you are. I want to put you at ease in your life. I want to bring a level of comfort to you when you're around my family and I. Relationships, there's comfort. And let me just say, I want to get ahead of myself, but there is a comfort that comes from a right relationship. Church is in a right relationship, that's why there's comfort in the Holy Ghost. The church is in dining on the bread of life, that's why there's the comfort of the Holy Ghost. These things bring comfort to us. Thirdly there, we see in 2 Samuel chapter 12, after David, his son, has died, and we see that he goes into Bathsheba, and the Bible says that he went to Bathsheba and comforted her. And she bare him a son. There is comfort, now I want you to listen close. There is comfort in the marriage bed. There is, and I'm not being unclean, there is comfort. You know why people get all weirded out by that? Because people are so unclean and so filthy in this day. There is comfort in the marriage bed. In fact, he said the marriage bed is undefiled before God. What does that mean? It doesn't mean that you can just be perverse and filthy and do what you want to do. What that means is the law of the marriage bed. Now, there's nothing unclean. If the man spills his seat of copulation, he's not unclean until the evening. He doesn't have to go wash the bed and wash the garments. The wife doesn't have to wash herself. If she comes out of her time, of separation. She doesn't have to go wash her garments and wash. In fact, during those times, the husband and wife can stay in the same bed together because the marriage bed is undefiled. That's what the marriage bed is. That's why it's undefiled before God. Those laws have been fulfilled in Christ. The husband and wife don't have to come apart from each other. By the way, that is a comfort. That is a comfort. My wife and I spent two nights apart. Six and a half years of marriage, we spent two nights apart. Both times she was mad at me and left. No, that's not true. Both times were emergencies. It was for other people, it wasn't for our base, for other people's benefit. We chose to be apart those two nights. You know, God allowed that, that's a comfort to me. Listen, those nights she wasn't there, I slept really good. There was nobody toss and turn. When I flung my arm, there was no head whacked into. But when I did wake up, I woke up in a panic. I was wide awake, where's my wife? I had to like register where's my, I finally crawled in the hospital after that. I had to go drive to Middletown, Pennsylvania and preach. Drove down to the York Hospital an hour south of there. I ran in there, we were just thrilled to death to see each other. Wow, he has spent a night apart from me. So there's a comfort in the marriage bed. But whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. There has never been comfort in the bed of a fornicator. There has never been comfort in the bed of the adulterer. There has never been comfort in a bed with two men lying in it. There's never been comfort in a bed with two women lying in it. There has never been comfort. Why? Because the God's honored relationship of a husband and a wife brings a comfort one to another. That is one of those things that's too wonderful in the Proverbs. He said, the way of a man with a maid, when they can go to the marriage altar pure and undefiled and holy, and they can go to that marriage altar and know that the other person is undefiled and clean, that is a comfort one to another. That's that way of a man. And the Proverbs said that these are things too wonderful. I can't understand, I cannot comprehend these things. Too wonderful for me. The way of a man with a maid, you know why? Because when it's undefiled, it's a comfort. But the marriage bed that's violated is filthy. The vows of marriage that are violated through adultery are filthy. There's no comfort, there's no rest. Two people getting together that are not married, there's no comfort. Let me say this, if they're a child of God, God will not give them comfort in that. We'll judge them for it, but not gonna find comfort. We know this, the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience. He told us that. Wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience, those that are fornicators. They say they love the Lord, say they're a child of God, yet they're in the bed of fornication. Not only is there no comfort, the wrath of God is upon them. Unless they repent, Unless they come to Christ and get honest with Him and confess those sins, they're gonna bear that wrath. That's what the Bible tells us. You know why, when He says that every sin a man committeth, he committeth without the body, he that sinneth, committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body, what does He say in there? The body is the Lord's. Your body's God's. You've been bought with a price. You're not your own. You've been bought with a price. and your body's a temple of the Holy Ghost. So a fornicator cannot be in comfort, he certainly can't be comforted by the Holy Ghost, because he's defiling the temple that God has given him through fornication. He sins against his own body. He's defiling what God has separated from himself, and that's the body. That's good preaching right there. You don't want to have to shout and run the aisles, but I'll be honest, that's pretty good preaching. Now to help some of you take heat to it, there's no comfort in the bed of fornication. There's never been comfort in the fornication bed. But there's comfort in the marriage bed. There's comfort in a relationship between a husband and a wife. There's comfort. Well, if you're gonna get bogged down, there's a pretty good place to get bogged down. We ought to have a kiss your wife night, amen. We did that in New York one, you had to kiss your wife night. And one man wouldn't kiss his wife. He just wouldn't do it. Well, her brothers were there. So I got up the next night, I said, you know what, some of you don't want to kiss your wife tonight, we're gonna have a kiss your sister night. Everybody's like, ew, gross, ew. I said, well, you should have kissed your husband then, rebel, amen. It's good sometimes to have a kiss your wife night. I mean, I don't mind kissing my wife in church, I don't mind kissing my wife in private, I don't kiss her in public. I mean, everybody else wants to kiss in public, I think I'd be able to kiss my wife in public. The wife relationship, the comfort that David gave to his wife, go to Job chapter two if you would. And we'll talk about this comfort just a little bit more. Again, a relationship with comfort, but Job 2.11, now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, we're in Job 2.11, they came everyone from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. When they saw that Job had lost All his means, Job had lost all of his cattle, his flocks, his children. They came and they simply did this. They came to comfort him. What did they do? They sat with Job for seven days. You know, can I say this about Job's friends real quick? When they sat with Job, the Bible says they came to mourn with him and to comfort him, and they sat there for seven days and uttered not a word. But as soon as they opened their mouths, Job said, miserable comforters are ye all. When they sat there and kept their mouths shut, they were comfort. That ought to be a lesson for some of us. As soon as they started running their mouths, he said, miserable comforters are you? There's no comfort in your comments. There's no comfort in your statements. There's no comfort in my friends. But I want you to look at Job 42, then in verse 11. Again, the Lord restored that comfort to Job. I want you to see this too, because this is biblical. A gift, even a monetary gift, can bring comfort. My dear friend, some of you may know him, one of you at least may know him, but he was in the city of Secane, Pennsylvania, on the outskirts of, kind of like, this is Oklahoma City, but not really, that's Secane. It's in Philadelphia, but it's not really. Philadelphia's just taken over the East Coast. And they just called the church in Philly, even though it's five miles from the city line. But my Schweitzer passed away back in March, and unexpectedly. And so we had to go to the funeral. And I remember after the funeral, somebody was confused because there was a man there, some of you know, Brother Sammy Allen, and he got up and he said, we're gonna take up an offering for Sister Schweitzer. And we're not down south, okay? We're in Philly, New Jersey. I mean, you know, hey, what are you looking at, crowd? He said, we're gonna take a good, oh, he goes, and then of course he goes, we don't take offerings, you know, we don't pull the gun, brother. We receive an offering. And people were just all upset about that. And next Sunday, a man came to me and he said, brother, what do you think about that? Taking up an offering for the pastor's wife. And he said this, he said, several preachers commented to me how they thought that was so inappropriate to take up an offering for the pastor's widow. Now, those of you that know me, don't pull that junk with me. I said, I just looked at him, I said, brother, you're right, that's awful. Raising money for that dear widow woman. That's a terrible thing. I said, you think how angry God must be over that. That's what I told him. I mean, God must be angry. We raised money at a funeral for the widow. What a terrible, bunch of carnal, selfish, shallow-pocketed Baptists is what they are. There's a biblical principle that even a monetary gift can bring comfort. Verse 11 of Job 42, then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters, And then even more than that, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and that he bred with him in his house. See, he comforted them when they needed comfort. He gave them bread. And they bemoaned him and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. Every man also gave him a piece of money and everyone an earring of gold. I'm gonna be doctrinal here. Job didn't wear it. Amen. The earring. Just throwing that out there. An earring was a precious commodity. It was a good that could be exchanged. It had value to it. They would simply take that earring off of their ear, there would be value in that earring, and with an outward display, they would take their value and they would exchange it for goods, and every one of them brought him a piece of money and an earring of gold. Why? To comfort him. There are physical things that bring comfort. Their food will bring comfort, relationships can bring comfort, The physical things that bring comfort, I'm just gonna give you one of those, and this is Psalm 23. And the psalmist writing as the shepherd says this, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. How is that? Well, I talked about peace, I talked about rest. What does the rod do to comfort? Well, there's a couple ways to look at that, but I'll tell you what the rod does. The rod keeps me in line. And that's a comfort to me. You want to find a child comforting? You'll find a child that has received the rod of correction. That foolishness is bound in their heart, has been driven from them with the rod of correction. And now they sit comforted, knowing that the rod will keep them from evil. By the way, that's also God's children. Because whom he loveth, he chastens. He scourges us betimes. If you've not been chastened, he said, you're bastards. That means you have no heavenly father. That rod of correction will chasten you and it'll bring comfort to you. The staff was used by the shepherd. The staff was used to basically beat enemies to death. There's some speculation, I don't know for sure, but David, we know he killed the lion and the bear. He was that type of a man. He killed the lion and the bear. He wasn't lying about that. The Holy Ghost told us David killed a lion and a bear. And then he slew Goliath in the field. He was a man's man. Why? Because he was used to protecting the sheep. It would give comfort to the sheep. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Two of the physical things that God still uses with us to bring us comfort. Now, I've just given an overview, just a very, very brief overview. I don't wanna get too extensive into this thing, but we know the Lord is a provider of comfort. We know that the Lord gives his children comfort. But what I wanna do for this next little bit, I wanna look at this thought and this idea when there's no comfort for people. I said most in this world, most people we know have no comfort. They're miserable. They live a miserable existence. I'm gonna make a statement. Please don't be offended by this. It's affected all of our families. It's affected my family. It's touched many of your families. But I'm gonna deal with it. I'm not gonna shy away from it. Suicides are alarming in America. Because there's no comfort. People feel like there's no comfort. There's nowhere to turn. comfort. The Midwest is especially alarming in its rates. Missoula, Montana has three to one the national average suicide, one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. There are countries using the northern climate, Scandinavian countries especially, alarmingly high in suicides. Where we live at, we know families and people, members just touched by this. It's a continual thing of just suicide after suicide. Preachers committing suicide, clergy committing suicide, church members committing suicide. It's everywhere. Where's the comfort? I suspect it's people who've turned on every hand for comfort. but they've not turned to the Lord for comfort. Ahithophel went out, got his house in order, went out and hanged himself. Why? Because his counsel was not followed. That's all it took to reveal that Ahithophel had no comfort. All they did was not follow his counsel. I had a pastor friend of mine who spake of one of his dear friends in ministry. And he just said, he said, brother, he said, I'm so angry with him. He said his wife had passed away. He was dating another woman and she broke it off with him and he went in his backyard and put a gun in his mouth and blew his brains out. A pastor of a church. There was no comfort. People die and parents, children, commit suicide. There's no comfort. We attended the funeral this past spring of a 21-year-old man who didn't just die, he slit his wrists lengthwise and made sure that he bled out and his mom had to find him in the bathtub. Why? Because there's no comfort. They feel like there's no hope. They feel like they don't have anything else. They've tried everything there is to turn to. They've tried women. They've tried liquor. They've tried booze. They've crossed the fence in sexuality. They've tried everything there is. They've tried pornography. They've tried just the lust of the flesh. Nothing satisfies, nothing seems to fill that void. And finally they get down to the place, they feel so empty and so lonely, they take their lives. Because there's no comfort. I wanna show you a city in the scriptures that had no comfort. So in Ecclesiastes four, we'll look at one verse there, Ecclesiastes chapter four. Now listen, I'm real careful when I deal with that, because I know this family's been destroyed by suicide. I know homes have been rent by suicide. I've known pastors' daughters I've been sitting there and they moved the wrong way or something like that. And I remember just blurting it out, not meaning to. And I said to a pastor's daughter, why do you cut yourself? And he looked at me in horror. Like, what are you talking about? And I'm thinking, you fool, can't you see? And she just sat right there and told us why she cut herself. And her dad the whole time's like, what do you mean she cuts herself? This is what she said, I just wanna let the hurt out. When I was with Brother Herbert, we had a lady in the church, her daughter was not a member of the church. Her husband had left her for another woman. Gave her four children, destroyed her body with children, then went and took up with a bimbo. She cut herself. She went through psychiatric treatments. They had to put her in the mental hospital. Months, maybe even a year later on, she came to church and she just testified of how good, good God had been, and God recovered her, and God brought her out of that. But this is what she said, I wanted to let the hurt out. I have family members. I've seen it on them, I've asked them. I'm talking about close family members. I said, why? Not wanting to deal with it, they shake it off. They just blow it off, no big deal. You see the cigarette burns down their arms. You see the wounds of cutting, the scars of cutting. Listen, they usually do it on their ankles or inside their arms or their wrists so that you can't see it. Eventually the scars build up. Learn to look for it, learn to adapt, learn to understand exactly what it is. If someone has been destroyed by sin and they hurt so bad, they think that cutting is gonna bring them some kind of relief. You know what comes after cutting? Talk to any psychologist in America, what comes after cutting is pills. And if the pills don't work, what comes next is suicide. Ecclesiastes 4.1. I know y'all didn't know a bargain for this, and you called Tim McVeigh to come for each meeting, but Tim McVeigh's been doing this a long time, and Tim McVeigh's dealt with a lot of people. And I'm not afraid to deal with the issues at hand. I'm not gonna put my head in the sand and act like an ostrich and act like everything's rosy and fine and perfect and beautiful. I'm not gonna be one of these kind of people. Ecclesiastes 4.1. So I return to consider all the oppressions that are done under the sun and behold the tears of such, and here's the key, as were oppressed. Why do they weep? Because they're oppressed. And they had no comforter. And on the side of their oppressors, there was power. Listen to the preacher. Not me, this one. They had no comforter. On the side of the oppressor was power. One of the dumbest things I hear said, and I think it's just, it is just dumb. If you say it, it's dumb. If your mom says it, it's dumb. If your grandma says it, I'll water it down, but it's still dumb. They say, well, so-and-so is addicted to drugs. Why don't they just stop? Come on now. I know it's preaching a bunch of angels, but that's all right. Because on the side of the oppressor is power. I've known people that couldn't stop eating. The doctor said, you don't quit eating, you're gonna die. They said, I'd rather die than quit eating. You know what that is? That's power. The drunks on the street, the hobos on the street, living under a bridge, drinking wine out of a cheap plastic cup, there's power behind what's keeping them under that bridge. There's a power in the oppression. There is power behind what's driving them to drink. Oh, I know. Hold on, I got to protect everybody. We don't want our children to hear this. We don't want our children to hear real life. We don't want our children to see real life and the reality of what's out there. We got to protect them from all of this. Let's act like it doesn't exist. There is no comforter. They didn't have somebody baking them warm bread. They didn't have somebody to come lie with them. They could call their husband or their wife to comfort them. They didn't have friends to bring them money. They didn't have friends to bring them earrings of gold. There was no comfort. On the side of the oppressor, there was power. It just got worse and worse. Since we're here, now this is the issue. This is the issue bothering churches. This is the issue troubling churches. It's not a lack of soul winner. The reason we don't have soul winners today is because we don't have people that are living for God because they're under the oppressor. They go, everything for the main thing. The main thing's soul winner. I'm like, no, the main thing's always been holiness, because you can't be a soul winner unless you're holy. People are oppressed. People are downtrodden. And men are under the oppression today of pornography. They feel like they can not stop. I know a pastor's son right now. He said, brother, you tell me, how do you handle this? And I said, brother, your son still needs a pastor. Your son still needs a father. I said, you just be his father. You just help him when you can. We're in the middle of a meeting. We're in the middle of a meeting. Men began to weep in the services. Began to talk. Begin to confess very limited, not publicly, because these things are filthy. Begin to go to other men and say, I need help. I need help. One of the brothers of that man, one of the other brothers of that man, trembling, said, I've looked at it too. He said, I can't throw stones at my brother. I've looked at it too. The side of the oppressor, There is power. There is no comfort. I'll tell you why we don't see people walking in victory. Because victory now is all in words. It's not internal. It's all we say we're in victory. We act like we're in victory. My wife and I sat in the hotel lobby. I don't mean to bring up all this dirt. I'm just about half mad tonight. I could preach mad if I wanted to. I'm about half mad. We sit in the hotel lobby in Tennessee. A man who has gone and taken another man's wife out of the church, just ran off with her. About three days into it, she comes to herself and tells him, get out. So he comes back to the church, gives us a little fake repentance. Eight, nine days later, we're sitting in a hotel lobby. He comes and says, brother, how are you doing? Oh, great, man, good. I'm just great. Things are wonderful. I said, are you kidding? You just ran off with another man's wife. Things aren't great. Honey, has he changed since? In the last five years, is everything great, wonderful, perfect? 15-day-old daughter died suddenly, woke up, she was dead in the crib. I said, how are you? Oh, good, brother, things are good. No, they're not good. That's just the standard answer. I don't want to be a pessimist. I don't want to be negative about this. That's the standard answer. Well, my son's in prison, my daughter's walking the streets. How are you? Oh, things are good, great, couldn't be better. No, things are not good. It's all just a practiced lip service. And can I say, this is a lip service for Twitter for most of them. You are what you are in your heart, not what you are on Twitter. I don't want to bog this down because some of you older folks are looking at me like, what in the world is a Twitter? Amen. Listen, I was an internet engineer for many, many years, and I saw the worst of the worst, the stupidest of the stupid. I've seen GS-15s go to prison for looking at pornography from their desk in the government, knowing full well that we could monitor what they're looking at. I was a network engineer for many years. And when all this Facebook and Twitter started getting popular, I'd go around preaching. I'd just tell people, you can be what you want to be on the internet, but it's not who you are. And people get mad at me, all bloated about me. Oh, he doesn't know what he's talking about. No, you can be what you want to be on the internet. Go out to these dating sites, you really think that's their picture? How foolish, how silly. If it was, it was 20 years ago when they graduated high school. I'm smarter than I look sometimes, that doesn't take much, but I am a little smarter than I look. Back when AOL 2.0 came out, you could communicate with people in strange places. It was back in my wrestling days. Me and my buddy, my tag team partner, went over to Fats' house. And let me tell you how you get a name Fats. Well, you probably figured that out. This man is 450 pounds. If he put you in a headlock, this was a rule. If Fats put you in a headlock, you gut punched him as hard as you could, because he didn't have any muscles in his stomach. And if he put you in a headlock, he stunk so bad. If he put you in a headlock, you'd punch him in the stomach till he let go. And I told him one time we were wrestling, Fats, you put me in a headlock, I'm going to beat you to death. He would never put me in a headlock. He stunk so bad. This dude's 400 pounds, he's sitting there eating a rare steak. I'm not making a plate, sitting on his stomach with his shirt off, with his bare hands, he's eating about a two pound sirloin steak with his bare hands, and he's sitting with the other hand typing on the computer. And this is what he said to us, he said, man, you ought to see the girls I'm talking to today. Well, you know what he was doing, all them other guys I wrestled with, he's using their pictures, some of these girls all over the internet. This is back in 1996 before I got saved. We thought it was the funniest thing in the world. I thought, you poor girls. You think you're talking to Mr. Bodybuilding, you're talking to Mr. Fats, 450 pounds, sitting on the couch eating a rare steak on a plate on his stomach. Can't even get off the, that's not a true story. I'm not making one bit of that story up. This is back in 96. We're talking about 23 years later. You think people have changed? No, just the internet's changed. I don't want to get into all this, we'll be here forever, but all these Facebook friends. My brother-in-law one time, he said, I got 1,100 Facebook friends, and I just told him to his face, I said, I wish you had a real one. I had the personality of a gnat. Got all these Facebook, I told him this, somebody said, do you have Facebook? I said, when they put a dislike button on there, I'll get on Facebook. I'll tell you, I'll sit there all day and just click dislike, dislike, dislike. I don't want to see your ungodly pictures and your wretchedness and your filth and your ungodliness and your dirty language and your contemporary music. I don't want to see any of that garbage. I don't want that stuff popping up on my computer. I don't want to see your indecent dress, your immodesty. I don't want to see priests at the beach with their wives in their underwear. I don't want to see it! You wonder why there's no comfort. Wonder why the Holy Ghost can't have his way in church. Wonder why he can't have his way in the services. Because the oppressor is strong. The oppression is great. Go to the book of Lamentations, if you would, first chapter. I may go a little long for some of you tonight, but I promise you this, it's not long for me. Now listen, we're in Pennsylvania. I know y'all consider yourselves Southerners out here. We call you Midwesterners, sorry. I don't want to offend you, hurt your feelings. I was in Yankee Land last week with Dave Hockenberry, Middletown, Pennsylvania, preaching an hour and 20 minutes. I didn't get to pulpit until after eight o'clock. I tried stopping about nine o'clock. I tried stopping about nine o'clock. I just said, preach, I feel like I need to stop. A man sitting in the very back of the church stood up. Out of character. He said, Brother Tim, he said, I wish you wouldn't stop preaching. I need this. I said, well, glory to God, bro. That's never happened to me in 13 years of preaching. You know what we did? We just plugged right back in. We got the shovel out, started digging deeper. We got out of there at night. Now, service started at 6 o'clock that night. We got out of there at 930 that night. That's when we got out of church. Folks didn't leave till 11 o'clock. Some folks said it was the best church service they were ever in. A lot of folks said that. Hey, don't blame the preacher. No, it was in spite of the preacher. You know what it was? It was the power of God, the fear of the Lord, and it was in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. When the comfort of the Holy Ghost is comforting us, and I say this, we'll sit and absorb and enjoy the fellowship with Christ. It's so important. Lamentations chapter one. For you context police, I know the context. I have to say that up north is context police in most of the services. Brother, you preach that out of context. I know he's talking about Jerusalem. I know he's talking about Zion, that great city. But I want to make an application a little bit later on here. So I know this is Zion. I know he's talking about a city, not a person. But he likens her to a woman. I've known that a long time, honey. It's one of those nights. My wife chastised when I put ChapStick on preaching. I guess the big shots don't put ChapStick on when they preach. Well, my lips were burning a little bit. I thought I better get some ChapStick out. My wife says, honey, you didn't put ChapStick on? I never remembered. I just noticed I put ChapStick on. I didn't mean to. But that's good. That's that Burt's Bees peppermint. That's good stuff right there. We get it for $0.50 at our Benton Dent store. We can't beat that. I know he's talking about Zion, he's talking about a city, but he likens her to a woman. And the reason he likens her to a woman is because Jesus Christ mentions her again. And I want you to look at this with me. Verse two says this. She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. Who is this great city? Why, she's become as a widow, the Bible says. Among all her lovers, she hath none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. Is that not the way of the transgressor? All the friends have dealt treacherously. I remember those days, and I won't get into all that, but I remember waking up and men that I thought were my friends had robbed me blind. I'd have to go down to the pawn shop, try to convince them that was really my stereo, those were really my CDs, those were really my cassette tapes, so I'd throw that out there too. I'd have to go to the pawn shop, give that a hock, sign a statement that's really mine, the police would have to come. Just treachery, no comfort. Why? Because the way the transgressor is hard. You don't have to live in a cardboard box to be hard. You can live on the golf course, but the way the transgressor is hard, why? Because the oppressor is strong. The oppressor has just as many people addicted on the golf course as he does under the bridge. They just have the money to hide it. They have the money to cover it up. Do you realize that most of Hollywood is addicted to painkillers and antidepressants and mood-altering drugs? Most of Hollywood is. And then all of a sudden, one of them checks in the dry-out clinic and everybody's shocked and appalled. I'll be honest, I'm not too shocked and appalled when I find out another preacher's wife's in the dry-out clinic. I'm not too shocked and appalled when I find out a missionary's gonna fall off the field because his wife suffered a nervous breakdown. Or he suffered a nervous breakdown. I'm not too shocked and appalled. There is no comfort today. But comfort's available. The Lord's not changed. Verse nine, her filthiness, and here's what I want you to look at, her filthiness is in her skirts, she's unclean. She remembereth not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully, She had no comforter. O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy hath magnified himself. Her filthiness is in her skirts. She is unclean. And there's no comfort. Verse 16, for these things I weep. Mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. My children are desolate because the enemy prevailed. Why? The strong one, the oppressor, has prevailed so I weep and I shed tears and I see the overthrow not only of me but of my children because the oppressor has prevailed over me. There's no comfort. Verse 17, Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her. The Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob that his adversary should be round about him. Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. So the Bible says, Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. She is unclean. Amen. Verse 21, They have heard that I sigh, and it simply says this, there is none to comfort me. Leviticus 15. If you'll turn back to Leviticus with me. And I wanna go to the law of the woman with the issue of blood, that is the menstruous woman. Leviticus 15, and I wanna start in verse 19. And I want you to very meticulously notice the marvel of this King James Bible and the wording that it uses. And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days, and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the evening. Now notice, for seven days she has no comforter. For seven days, she has no one to give her comfort. For seven days, she doesn't have a husband to comfort her. No one can hug her. No one can provide her with solace. No one can touch her. She's put away. She has no contact with people that could comfort her. Verse 20, and everything that she lieth upon her separation shall be unclean. Everything also that she sitteth upon, there's her skirts, upon shall be unclean. And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whosoever toucheth anything that she shat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. And if it be on her bed, or on anything whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even. And it goes on to verse 25. If a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation, all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation. And here's what the Bible says, she shall be unclean. Filthiness is in her skirts. Jesus deals with this in the book of Matthew, and he deals with, and if we'll turn over there with me, please, the book of Matthew. In verse nine. He deals with this woman. We see the picture, if you will, of Zion, Jerusalem, but in verse 18, I said it's verse 20, rather, of Matthew chapter nine. And behold, a woman which was diseased with an issue of blood 12 years, 12 years of separation, 12 years of no comfort, 12 years of no one to hug her, no one to touch her, no one to come near her. She is unclean, she is separated for 12 years. She's been isolated from people. For 12 years, she's had an issue. For 12 years, she's gotten no help for her issue, and she's separated from men. And she came behind him, and this is what the Bible said, and touched the hem of his garment. For she said within herself, if I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith. hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. 14 years of separation, 14 years with an issue. But what did she do? She came and touched the hem of his garment that she might be made whole. What I want to say in this is it doesn't matter how long the issue's been going on, it doesn't matter how long you deal with the issue, it doesn't matter how long you've been separated, it doesn't matter how long you've been unclean, if you can just get to Him. He simply said, be of good comfort. Jesus told His disciples, He said, I will come to you. Who's He speaking of there? The Comforter, the Holy Ghost. There are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. Jesus said on this was, if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. In Him, who Jesus Christ dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, He is God. He is the Comforter. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And when she touched the hem of His garment, The oppression ceased. The oppressor lost all his power. And comfort came to her life. Fourteen years with an issue. Fourteen years of separation. Fourteen years the power of the oppressor. Fourteen years, and as simply one touch of his garment, she was made whole. The issue was gone. The issue ceased. The separation ceased. The uncleanness ceased. Her garments were washed and made new. The place where she lied was cleansed and made new. Can I simply say tonight, it doesn't matter what the issue is, when the church is walking in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, then the church can offer comfort. to others. So why aren't we walking in the comfort of the Holy Ghost? It could be there's just too many issues. It could be there's just enough issues that the comforter cannot have his way. It could be there's just enough issues that the Holy Ghost cannot speak, cannot move, cannot work like he wants to do. I know we always think of grieving the Holy Ghost. We think of the idea that in the service somebody does something that's just untoward. They do something unclean with their thoughts or their actions. I've heard testimonies that just killed a service. I've heard them. I've heard preaching that's killed a service. I've done preaching that's killed a service. I've heard singing that's killed a service. I've been in services that killed the singing. But I think a lot of us just, when we come in, and we come in and our issue's not being dealt with, I think it's already a grief to him. I think it's a grief before we ever show up. You see, quenching him and grieving him are two different things. Quenching him is literally when that little fire is lit. How do you quench the fiery darts of the wicked? Well, you take that shield of faith. That fiery dark comes in, what do you do? You take that shield and you quench that fiery dark. You smother it, you put it out. You don't let it linger and burn. Why? Because fire's destructive. But how can we quench what's not started if we've already grieved him? Can I say this? The issue, no matter how deep, no matter how Far away, it seems, the issue is at hand. And as Jesus passes by, a woman reaches out, and all she does is touch the hem of His garment. Amen. And by the way, that was her faith. It was her faith, amen. She's talking about touch the hem of His garment and be made whole. And He looked at her. Be of good comfort. Right. Our faith has made thee whole. Amen. You're no longer unclean, you're no longer a scourge, you no longer have your issue. I've given you comfort. Can I say, I see Job now. I see Job, the boils are gone, his wife's returned, the livestock's coming, his children are about to come. You know, we lost two children In the time of my wife carrying the baby, we've lost two early on, one pretty early in our marriage and one two years after. My wife got to the place, we just didn't know if we were gonna have a baby. She struggled, had to have a surgery. Boy, just a lot going on, but we both struggled. Boy, we learned more about the Lord in that time than we've ever learned any time in our life. In the middle of that, her daddy passed away. Went through a hard couple years, I'll be honest with you. But the Lord was our comfort and our stay. We found out we were having Liliana. We went down and got the little ultrasound. They said, it's gonna be a girl. And my wife says, what do you think? I said, I wanna name her Jemima. And everybody gets all up in arms, you know. Well, that's the pancake lady. I said, long before the pancake lady. Amen, long before the red bandana lady came along. When God restored Job, the first thing he gave Job was a daughter. You know what her name was? Jemima. Now, you notice we have Liliana. I obviously don't rule my home like I ought to. Amen. I'll be honest, I didn't want to have to take my little girl Jemima to IHOP, I'll be honest with you. That would have been a struggle. We would have had a tough time with that. But God restored to him a daughter. And God began to restore Job. He's seated back in the gate, that position of authority, And all those that knew him came and comforted him. And he said, why do you picture Joe? Because now I see a woman who for 14 years has had an issue. You know something? When somebody has an issue, you know, everybody in town knows they have an issue. And now all of a sudden the issue's gone and she can be comforted. And now when she walks down the street, she's no longer unclean. Somebody can come and slip their arm around her. Give her a little piece of money. Say, hey, I know you've had this issue, but hey, take this and get yourself something to eat. Get some bread. Bring a little earring of gold. Take some wealth. Add this to your wealth. The issue's gone. You've been made whole. Be of good comfort. Hey, we just made you an apple pie. Be of good comfort. You know what the Lord's trying to do in this meeting? Deal with the issues. He's trying to deal with the issues. He's trying to bring them to the surface. So what's left? Oh, I forgot, we're Calvinists. I forgot that last night. We're just gonna wait till God comes and takes the issue away. You had to be here, brother. I'm just gonna sit and pray till the issue's gone. No, he just wants us to repent. Just come touch the garment. I'm done with me. I need someone else. The oppression is too strong for me. I need somebody else to handle this. You know what touching this garment is? That's her submission. I've tried everything. I've tried all the doctors. I've tried all the physicians. I've talked to everybody. I've tried every natural cure, homeopathy cure, gone to the chiropractor, gone to the quack, gone to the doctor. I've done everything I can. Nobody's been able to help me. I know, now that I'm done with all of that, I think I'll go down to hear this man I've heard about. I'm just gonna touch his garment. The oppression ceased. The oppression was gone. The church was walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Now, I don't know if we'll preach more of this tomorrow night. Probably with just things I wrote down, might be a quarter of the way through. I hope the Lord helped you. If the Lord showed you an issue, You just need to come to him. You just gotta be honest about the issue. The hardest thing to deal with in our lives is our past. But if that's your issue, you better deal with it. If that's what's keeping you from comfort, you better deal with it. I've said this before and people get upset with me. He giveth his beloved sleep. That's biblical. It doesn't say how much sleep. He'll give you the sleep you need. I realize there are people that just suffer from physical maladies, the aches, the pains, the hurts, insomnia. But I think most people that can't sleep, I think they're conscious. So they go tell the doctor I can't sleep, so what does he do? He gives them something to block out their conscience. Listen, when you're in grief, you can't sleep. But you don't need to block your conscience out, you need to work through the grief. When you're sorrowing, you can't sleep. But you need to deal with the sorrow. When your conscience is keeping you up over your past, you don't need to go to the doctor. You need to go to the physician. He'll help you with the issue. It's been bubbling up all week. It's just sensitive. It's just that we must go back. Listen, I know we press on. I know we're forging ahead. But we can't go any further till we deal with things in the past. Those issues, those issues that are limiting us with God. Pastor Bell, I'm done.