00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Isaiah 51, Isaiah 51, and then
another place just in Isaiah 52 here that I thought that the
text in my mind says take on strength, and that's what I want
to preach on is taking on strength, but I looked it up in my concordance
and it doesn't say take it on, but it says put it on, and it's
somewhat of the same meaning, but I believe we need to take
on strength. Isaiah 51, if you want to stand
with us or leave yourself a minute, if that's something you enjoy
doing, it's not necessary, but it's always good if we want to,
by saying we appreciate that God has preserved His word and
left it for us, and I praise Him for it tonight. We wouldn't
know what to do, would we? One group of Baptists back home,
got together an associational meeting, and one of the questions
that was put before the association, and there was a committee was
gonna give an answer to the question at the end of the session, and
it was how to try the spirits. And one of the best answers was
to put it to the Bible test, and if you put that spirit to
the test of Bible, that's how we discern it, that's how we
know. Because God's Word is not up and down like our feelings
are up and down. God's Word is forever settled
in heaven. It's rock solid. And so put that to the Bible
test. So if we didn't have a Bible,
we would be in trouble. I'm not saying that we couldn't
worship God. I mean, we have to have the Word
of God to know God. But the Word of God, it says,
is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And we do need
to know it now. I'm not saying it will happen
before the coming of the Lord, but they may take them away from
us. We don't know. They may either try to. I mean,
they'll declare this book, if they can, maybe in the very near
future as hate speech. and say it's not even allowed
to be, we don't know what they're gonna do. I mean, the sky's the
limit for a lot of people in their wicked, depraved mind.
But we need to hide it in our hearts where it cannot be taken
away. Need to put it in our children's
minds, don't we? Put it in our children's minds,
and maybe God'll put it in their heart and have it in our heart,
because it's a lamp, so we have to have God's word to guide us
along. But in God's word, in Isaiah
53, there's this verse in verse nine. It says, awake, put on
strength, O arm of the Lord, awake as in ancient days, in
the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut
Rahab and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried
the sea and the waters of the great deep? that hath made the
depths of the sea a way of the ransom to pass over. Therefore,
the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing,
undesigned, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads, and
they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning
shall flee away. I may have said 53, but I meant
51. I heard people flipping. I may
have confused you there. Isaiah 51 9 is where I read from. But they're crying out to God
to see God's hand move again. They know the power of God's
hand. They know that his hand is mighty.
And they're saying, awake, O arm of the Lord. Reach out again
and touch. In your power put on strength
awake. It was like God wasn't moving
but they looked forward to a day when God would move and and and
and he did and will and has and does and I'm glad of that and
then over in Isaiah 52 And 53, I mentioned last night
preaching on the cross, some wonderful scripture here. He
says, Awake, awake, Isaiah 52, one. Awake, awake. Put on thy
strength, O Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city. For henceforth there shall no
more come unto thee the uncircumcised and unclean. Shake thyself from
the dust, arise and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from
the bands of thy neck, O Jerusalem. captive daughter of Zion. It says, For thus saith the LORD,
Ye have sold yourselves for naught, and ye shall be redeemed without
money. What a day they were looking
forward to. They didn't see this really.
They were somewhat confused about it. In Isaiah 52, They was it
says there's I believe it is 51 or 2 here there. There's none
to guide her you can be seated Thank you for standing. I got
a friend who is a missionary to to the Jews. He's connected
to them by family somehow he's told me the story but He just
lets the Holy Spirit lead him, and that's one of the themes
of his burden on his mission card, is there's none to guide
her. And he finds these individual
Jews all over the world. It's just like God leads his
life. It's really amazing how he will encounter these people. And it is like they are blind
the Bible tells us they are. It is like this veil is over.
But as individuals through the Gospel their eyes can be opened.
And the Gospel of course was to them as a people first and
then to the Gentile. But the Lord RICH UNTO ALL THAT
CALL UPON HIS NAME, AND HE'LL SAVE ALL OF THEM WHETHER THEY
BE JEW OR GENTILE." THAT'LL BELIEVE UPON HIM. THAT'LL TURN TO HIM.
BUT HE USES THAT. THERE'S NONE TO GUIDE HER, BUT
THIS DAY CAME. AND WE KNOW IT DID. ISAIAH 53
CAME WHEN GOD'S SON CAME. AND THEN AS WE SPOKE LAST NIGHT
ABOUT THE WORK OF of the cross, but oh, how we need strength.
How that it is good to see the arm of God, the power of God,
isn't it? I'm glad there's been times in
my life when, as the brother prayed the other night, Lord,
walk up and down the aisles. When I've been in God's house,
when he showed his hand, when he showed his arm, that's the
beginning of Isaiah 53. Lord, who hath believed thy report
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. Who has seen it?
Have you seen it tonight? Can you think back at a time
in your life when you have saw the power of God on people, in
your heart, moving in the community, moving in the area? That's what
they wanted. Lord, awake that and move like
you have before in the generations of old. Let's see it again. It's
much like Sapson who, I didn't intend to go this direction,
but it's much like Sapson who had seen God move, who was mighty
and God was with him, and sin had came into his life, and of
course, there's a lot of things you can glean in the book of
Judges from the life of Sapson, but he looked like he was taken
to a place of ruin. they'd plucked his eyes out and
took him down under the Coliseum and made sport of him, that strong
man of God who had caught 300 foxes and tied their tails together
and set them on fire and run them through the Philistines'
court. I mean, so many miraculous stories there in his life about
where he tore down the gates and took them up on the hill.
I mean, it's a lot. Some's not real fresh. I need
to read that again. I think we find strength when
we see the things that God has done in the past, but looking
here at the word of God and thinking about it, Samson was taken to
the end of his life, but it was at the end of his life that he,
that, you know, that hair being that Nazarite in that veil, he
would tell them, you know, if you bind me with green ropes
or cords, I'll lose my strength, but he'd just break them. Sampson,
the Philistines would be upon you, Delilah would say. He'd
just break them like thread. But that day that she just kept
pressing on him, pressing on him. Now the reason I know God's
helping me tonight is because I ain't thought of this and I'm
preaching on strength. And she says, tell me, Sampson,
wherein does your great strength lie? and he finally tells her,
you know, I think the world sometimes has seen God's people dry up,
and they would really like to know where our strength is. Our strength is in the Lord,
and I'm telling you, as long as we'll stay hooked up with
him, and as long as we'll stay plugged in with him, my friend
will march on as God's people, and nothing can prevent that. He said, upon this rock I'll
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not. means shall
not. Affirmative speaks from God,
cannot, shall not, will not. In other words, prevail against
it. I believe there will be a people
when the Lord comes that will have faith in Him. Maybe just
a few, but there will be a people who believe and trust in Him.
I guarantee you that. I want to be in that That number,
if he comes in my time, I want to be found in the field working
and laboring and faithful. He said, blessed is that servant.
When the Lord cometh, he's so fine to do him. I want to be
doing the will of God. A Samson cried out after they
cut his hair off and his strength was gone. All of a sudden, that
began to come back. I want to say tonight, it can
come back again. It ain't over until it is over. we can be strong for God in these
days. His heart began to grow back,
and the strength of God and the power of God began to come upon
Samson, and he called for the land, and Edun took his eyesight
away, and he said, just one more time, Lord, just one more time,
let me see it again. Give me the strength again. Let
me feel your power that I may avenge you for my sake. But what it was is that God had
worked in his life and the things that looked like wasn't ordered
of God was of God. And he was going to use him to
be a deliverer of God's people and there underneath that He
said, let me fill the pillars, and he put his hands on the pillars,
and there was more victory wrought and a greater victory wrought
at the end of his life than there was all of his life. Samson brought
victory to God's people just like this. I think of another
who brought victory to God's children just like this. And
so when the strength of God moved upon him, Deliverance came. One of the saddest places in
the Word of God is when God's people needed deliverance. The
children of Israel needed to be delivered. They wanted to
come to new life. They wanted new freedom, new
joy. They'd been in captivity. And
the Bible says today is a day of rebuke and blasphemy. The
children are come to the birth, but there's no strength to bring
forth. But there is tonight strength
In the Lord, I mean strength beyond measure tonight as the
song said. And we need God to strengthen
us. I read in the word of God in
the book of Revelations to where the Lord spoke to one church
and he tells them down in the latter part of his letter, through
the letter that he sent to them that John saw and heard, he said
there's just a few. And so a lot of people might
say we've gotta have numbers to have power. We've got to have
numbers to have strength. That's not necessarily the case
for you. He said there's a few in Sardis
that have not defiled their God. There's a few and they will walk
with men white. And I believe when he spoke to
that church, he spoke no doubt. collectively, but there could
have been and maybe was just a few that heard his voice. In Laodicea, he speaks to the
church. He's outside calling inside. He's been pushed out by the people,
but yet he calls out into the, if there's anyone, if there's
just one that'll hear my voice, I'll come in. Oh, let you be
the one. You know, as a sister's father,
my brother Tim, he passed away, a member of the church I pastor. I loved him and wish I could
have knew him better, but one of their favorite songs was,
let me be the one to say thank you. Let me be the one if the
nine want to go home. Lord, let me be the one. And
so I pray tonight that if all of us could get the attitude,
let me be the one to come in at a church with a burning testimony. Let me be the one who can come
in and say, I know I got a prayer through this week. I believe
we all would gain strength. Don't you now? I'm not just preaching
for tonight. I'm preaching for you first next
Sunday morning I'm preaching for this pastor and his labors.
I'm preaching for your joy I'm preaching for your victory. God's
Word is not just eat now and then tomorrow and we run out
of the strength of it like we would a meal in four to six hours. No, God's word is greater than
that. I believe it was Elijah who got
weary. I mean, he was great on Mount
Carmel when God's power came, but it seemed like something
faded out of him, and Jezebel began to make threats. He flees
into the wilderness of Horeb, and there he is in the cave laying
down on God. And God comes in the still, small
voice and calls him out and says, what doest thou hear? And the
next thing, he's over here laying down asleep. And the Lord speaks
to him and says, arise and eat. The journey's too great. You
need some strength. And God had the angel to put
food there for him. And he ate two times. And the
word of God says he went on the strength of that meat for 40
days. I mean, God's word, God's food. It's like no other. So if we
want to find strength, freedom, we can get it from hearing God's
Word. There's strength in the Word
of God. I mean, there's strength in it. And so when God's Word
is going forth, it'll pay you well to perk up, as the ears
would on the old meals back in the day, and listen and hear
what God has to say. Amen there is strength in God's
Word and oh how we need it. We need strength He said to them
there at Sardis I believe it was and also in Philadelphia
He spoke to both of them, but he used he said there y'all thou
hast a A little strength. And then he says to the church
just prior to that, he says, strengthen the things that remain,
that are ready to die. There's something left. There's
still something left. I want to say to Calvary Baptist
Church, it ain't all gone. Don't get that in your head.
It's not all gone. It may not be as it was in the
70s. There may not be a camp meeting
here three or two or three times a year with 300 people. It may
never ever be again, but God's not changed, friend. God's not
changed. He's not went on a journey. He's
not asleep as the prophets of Baal's God was, but I believe
He's still on the throne. He's ready and willing tonight
and able still in this day to send down the fire and move in
such a miraculous way There's no doubt of who was doing the
doing. It was God. It was God. And so, don't believe that it's
over. It's not. Strengthen the things
that remain. Oh, strengthen it by hearing
his word. I thought of some ways to strengthen
ourself. Now, of our physical body, I
thought of that. You know, work out. You can work
out and gain strength. And I believe that this personal
walk with God, nothing takes its place. I believe when you
come to church, you can find strength from others, as I've
already said, but that'll not take place at your personal walk.
And the Bible says to work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. That's personal. That's between
you and God. And that text and context is
not you being lost and at the altar alone, work it out, you
know, because you can't work for salvation. You're not necessarily
even going to sort it all out in your mind and figure it out.
Salvation is of the Lord, and God will let you know when you've
been delivered. Back home, they usually only
say that. Well, we let them pray. We let
them work out their own salvation of fear and trembling. I'm not
trying to create an argument tonight, but I believe that scripture
means for you to work out of you what God's worked in you.
Do you believe that with me? Work it out. It's just like if
I was preaching tonight, and I am, if I was working or laboring
hard and got real physical and I drank this water, in a little
while it would come out of me. I put it in and it would come
out in the form of perspiration. And I believe that what God put
in you, It will work its way out and you'll find strength
in working out your own salvation and fearing trembling, making
sure you're saved, maintaining a relationship with God, working
it out, cultivating what God has put in your heart. Great
dividends will come if you'll invest in what God has put in
you. Work it out and you'll find strength
in that. Work it out. Don't just let it
sit still. Work it out. It's the nature
of man to be lazy and just want a one-time fix for everything.
That's what they wanted with the manna. It was there for them
every morning, but some of them said, getting up early and going
after it every day. I'm out here today and there's
plenty of it. I'm gonna store it on the shelf. But God had
done said that won't work and they did it and it bred worms
and stank. It got stale and old. But salvation,
if we'll let it work and we'll work it, it don't never get old.
It don't never get stale. It don't never get bland for
you. Thank God it gets sweeter each day if we'll do it right. Oh, there's strength in that.
Lamentations said the Lord. His compassions fell not, His
mercies. They're new every morning. Every
day we awake, we're saved. Saved, saved. Every day if we're
saved yesterday, we're saved today. Yesterday is gone, but
today is new. And we can shout it from the
rooftop today. God is good today. We don't have
to live on the days gone by. We can live in the now. God's
good now. Our God is almighty now. God
is all powerful now. God is all knowing now. God is
all wise now. God is in control now. And there's
victory in that and strength in that reality. So we can find
strength in working with what God has given us. I believe y'all
always wanna be a better Christian, don't you? I want to be a better
Christian, Lord. I want to be a better preacher.
I told Brother Craig today, I feel like a lot of times I'm just
so simple when I preach. There are so many preachers.
In my spirit, I say all the good preachers and God's preachers
are better than me. We want to be humble about it. Paul said,
I'm the least. I feel like a lot of times I
don't, I don't excel as I should. And I don't, I'm not given, reaching
my full potential. I preached the message once on
potential. I was in Indiana in a meeting. And I was really young. I consider myself still pretty
young. I'm 42. But I've been preaching since
I was 19. It's probably the first camp meeting I ever preached
in. But I got to think about that tree there in the Word of
God that they come upon and there's no fruit. And he says, I've been
here before and not got anything, and it's no good. Just cut her
down. Why cumbereth it? Cumbereth it
the ground. It's just wasting up space. So
just cut her down and throw it away. Plant something else in
its place. But I'm glad God didn't do that
with me. and I'm glad he don't throw the clay away and he don't
throw his children away. That fella says, oh no, don't
do that. Let me dig about it a little. Let me dung it. We'll
check it another year and see if it bears any fruit. And I
thought about, you know, reaching our potential. The tree had potential,
but it needed some help. And you've got great potential.
You boys, all of you here, anybody that's saved, if you're not saved,
I'm longing for the day you get saved. But you've got potential.
You can be something for God. You can be strong in the Lord.
The Bible says, be ye strong in the Lord and in the power
of his might. You can stand. You can be like Daniel. You can
be like Noah. You can be like Moses. You can
be strong like Samson. You can be something for God
in these days. but you're gonna have to take
on strength. You're gonna have to take on strength. And God
gives strength. The Bible says he does. And let's
see some verses here. We know this is a good one. In
Isaiah 40, I was thinking about strength and I was 99.999% sure
that I had what God wanted. And we was over in the fellowship
hall and I walked over under that ship and I looked under
it and I saw Isaiah 40, 30. Here's what it says. He giveth
power to the faint, in verse 29 of Isaiah 40, and to them
that have no might, he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall
fain and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. You say,
preacher, I'm weak. Christian friend, you just keep
trustin' God. You just exercise faith as I
preached the first night. You have faith in God. He will
strengthen you. He gives strength to them who
are not, who doesn't feel His might. And strength is not, He
says, and the strength of youths will faint. They will get weary. The young men will utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. And they shall walk and not faint. And I'm not trying to be contradictory,
but I've preached on working, and that's got its place. But
I'm preaching on waiting now. There are times when you're just
doing all you know to do, and nothing's happening. You've got
to have faith right then. The odds not going anywhere.
You say, I went through that trial and it just about got me. And it's been, and I, and you
know, the footprints in the sand poem, you know, kind of lost
its thrill to people. But I was preaching somewhere
in a meeting last year, I think it was over there at Brother
Logan's, and I hadn't even recited it to myself or thought about
it in a long time. I'd seen it in so many homes
and so many bathrooms in churches back in Sunday school rooms,
but it got real to me. when I was preaching and I just
kind of went over it again and reminded people you say that
trial about got me and I trusted in God and I barely made it through
it well that's the way they felt it was in the hardest time of
my life and I'll look back and just saw one set of prints why
was it then Lord that you wasn't with me and the Lord says why
child It wasn't then that I had forsaken you, it was then that
you would not have made it. And I'm not reciting the poem
or what you want to call it exactly right, but he's saying it was
in them times that I carried you. I like the thought. What song does it say? He'll
carry me through. He'll carry me through. I believe
he'll carry us through. He'll carry us through. And he'll
carry us through by his strength. And he'll give us his strength.
And we can make it. We can make it. And we will make
it. God's people can persevere. They
can persevere through grace all the way to glory. I believe they
can. And he says, they shall, that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. So wait upon
the Lord and get strength. God offers it, God gives it to
them that wait. Now, while we wait, there's a
contemporary song, I believe it is, I heard on the move. While
I'm waiting, I will worship. You'll find strength in worship
tonight. We're finding strength in worship. I'm a-worshipping
a little bit while I'm preaching to you, because what I'm preaching
to you is making me happy, because I need strength. I've been a-digging
and a-begging and a-clawing lately, maybe like a lot of you. I've
been concerned about many things. I feel like that I am a lot like
Mary, Mount Martha, who was covered about with much serving, and
Mary and Martin, you know, I get them confused, but there she
is. One of them was not doing anything. she just sitting at
his feet and hearing his word and she chose the good part and
she got strength and he said she's took that part that shall
not be taken away but the other of worrying and working to get
everything just right. The Lord's not interested in
a lot of things that we think we've got to do for Him to show
up in our lives. He just wants us to get at His
feet and do something for us. He's a giving God. He's a loving
God. And He wants to do for His children.
And there's a great work that goes on at His feet. Worship
goes on at His feet. She goes there and carnal people,
they think we got, and hey, Brother Craig told me, he said, we needed
a new look and y'all remodeled the church. And I got over and
I thought, man, this is pretty. This is beautiful. I'm proud
for you. Thank God. God's house ought
to be nice. But we can get in a mentality
that, you know, God is impressed with certain things and God wants
these works out of us and these things for us to really get what
we need. You know, the fleshly ideal was
the woman with the alabaster box of ointment. She gets it,
she comes before the Lord, falls at his feet and breaks it and
begins to wipe his feet and anoint him and there she is and they
think they know what kind of woman she is that the Lord don't
know and all this is going on. And then one of them says, you
know, this should have not been done. Something greater could
have been done. This could have been sold and
given to the poor. I mean, I'm glad, it's wonderful
to give to the poor, but nothing comes before worship. Nothing
at all comes before worship. And she's at his feet. And she's
doing something that needs to be told over the whole world,
doesn't it? Wherever the gospel's being preached. There's more
than one person got at his feet and got help. I know one that
got at his feet one night and got help. Have you ever been
there? And so we can find strength in worship. And we can find strength
in coming together and worship. We find strength. And worship
is not always a shouting and feeling good. No, the strength
a lot of times does not come until after we worship. Abraham,
worship involves a sacrifice in Abraham's day. He's going
to give his son, that's what he called worship. And so it
took something in that day to worship, in their day you had
to bring something. Bear with me. Here he goes and
God says, take thy son, thine only son, Isaac, up on the mountain,
which I call you to, and offer him up for me. And he does. And he goes and he's gonna offer
up Isaac. And on the way up to worship,
he said, the lad and I are gonna go yonder and worship and we'll
come again. I don't want to dwell on that
because I love that scripture. There's a lot to be said about
it, but they go yonder and as they walk, where are we going,
daddy? Nowadays, he would have said,
son, we're going to church. We're going to church, Daddy?
Yes, sir. He says, well, Daddy, when we go to church, we take
more than this. He said, I know, Dad. I know,
son. Well, Dad, I've got a question.
What, Isaac? And you know Abraham's heart
bound to have been heavy, because he was going to go through with
it. He was going to offer his son to God. But he was strong
in faith, and he knew that God had done and told him things
about that boy. And he knew in his heart, he so understood that
God was so true to the things that God hath said. I mean, he's
done been through a lot way before Isaac's born. I mean, he's got
some strength now. He can believe God. I mean, God
has come up through in his life, and Isaac just didn't appear.
I mean, so much happened before Isaac. But now God says, he says,
well, you know, I just know this, that God's gonna bring him from
the dead. he knew he would he had to but God was teaching him
something and showing him something and God was doing something that
you and I could look back upon and see and so much has came
from that but he says father we've got the wood we've got
the fire but where's the sacrifice where's it at he says my son
God shall provide for himself for himself a lamb and so now
We don't go out and get the dove or the pigeon. We don't go out
in the field. We've got it made. I'm telling
you tonight, I'm trying to tell you that worship should be easy
for us because the table's spread. God's done all the work. He just
says worship. Am I right about that? Is that
not right? Father, we've got the wood. Everything's
set up to worship. But Lord, Father, there's always
a sacrifice. Lord, Daddy, I know if you're
gonna worship God and approach God, you can't just come on your
own. There's gotta be an atonement.
There's gotta be something to open the path. God, it's gotta
be that way to get to God. And he says, my son, God will
provide for himself a lamb. And he looks over, we know the
stories. He's got his knife and going to slay his own son. And
here's the little ram. Here's the little lamb. Here's
the little, here's the little innocent with the crown of thorns
on his head. And he takes him and he offers
him up to God. But in his heart, Isaac died
up there. It was three days from that mountain
till he got back to them people where he had left and he said,
me and the lad are going to go yonder and worship and we'll
come again. And in the figure, the Bible
says, he received Isaac from the dead. He understood. He saw something. He saw something,
friend, and I saw it too. Hey, can you see it? Did you
see it? Oh, yes. The man says thanks
to Calvary. Oh, his eyes were opened. His
burden was lifted. His guilt was taken all at Calvary. and that's the place where we
need to go again. We can look back on it as we
did last night as a priest about to cross, but everything is set. We can come with empty pockets.
We're a child of God. The veil's been tore down. He
went behind the veil for us. We can go back there, too, because
he made and give us right to go back there. We can go in with
praise and thanksgiving. We can offer the praise of our
lips. We can come to God, and we can
worship God. We can worship God, and we are
those that he said that he looked for. He said, the woman at the
well says, he says to her, some say worship in this mountain.
She says, some say at Jerusalem. He said, you know, we being Jews,
we know what we worship. We know, but the Father, he's
looking for a people and seeking a people that will, and that's
what he's looking for, is spiritual worship. And if you've ever had
spiritual worship, their strength and spiritual worship tonight.
One fella proclaimed his spiritual worship, had revived and charged
his soul so much. Old Brother Mitchell, he said,
he got old, you know, and he walked, you know, he was 80 years
old preaching the gospel, and he walked over there and he said,
I've been revived. He said, I believe tonight that
I could swing out over hell on a thread with a water pistol
and say boo at the devil. That's strength, ain't it? Hallelujah! That strength, that strength
in the soul. I mean all fear's gone! When
that happens, there's boldness in your heart. You can claim
the victory in the Lord. And we need that again, church.
We need the strength of God each passing day. And it comes through
His hand when He lays His hand on us and He touches our hearts.
and hope, and the fire of God is rekindled, and we can get
on our feet again. You say, Preacher, we're not
anything. Oh, the church of today is just
like Israel was, and Ezekiel sat in that open valley. We've
just dried up. That's the way so many people
feel, and sometimes it appears that way, but God prophesied,
Ezekiel prophesied, and the wind blew upon them, and they began
to come together, one to the other, as bones began to join
through the sinew, and the muscle all came, and before it's all
over, God's people got on their feet, and there stood a great
army of God's people. We can find that strength today.
It's available to us and we need that strength. I believe this
with all my heart. that God spoke to me. Brother
Craig said when I left the meeting, I was left heavy hearted when
I left here last year in a meeting and I thought we might should
have went some more nights and I grieved about it and I was
looking forward to coming back if God ever allowed it. I was
looking forward to coming back and I've tried to pray and he
said I feel like you need to come back. And if you believe
in how all that works, that God sent you a pastor, I think you
believe that. You say, well, he's not perfect.
Well, you ain't either. And so when I first church I
pastored, I had a missionary come and I was just trying to
be kind to him, you know, and be respectful and just act like
I thought I was supposed to act. And I was a young pastor. He
comes to the pulpit and he says, I appreciate the young pastor. He says, I appreciate him and
his kindness and all the kind gestures and hospitality and
everything he's been giving to me. And he said, I hope you love
him. I hope you're praying for him.
But he says, if there's any issues that you have with him, he said,
here's what I want to challenge you to do. He said, pray for
him. He said, God will straighten
him out or you out one. Pretty good, ain't it? You know,
I was glad to hear it because if I needed straightened out,
I wanted God to straighten me out. And you know, if you'll
have that spirit and I'll have that spirit, there'll be strength
in that as well. There'll be strength because
there'll be unity. There'll be unity, and how we need unity
in these days. There's strength in the church
and strength in buildings. We built a building. It's considered
a shop. It's got living quarters in it.
We built that for my first cousin, Katie. She's teaching school. Her husband just got a job with
an electric company. They put their house up for sale. They
wanted to move on her dad's farm, which was my granddaddy's farm.
And they said, we got to go somewhere because our house is under contract.
We've got a short time to be gone. And so we want to build
a shop slash house. And we want to live in it for
about a year and then build a house. And they said, and Joe come up
and said, we're going to have to put a hip roof on that thing.
Y'all know what a hip roof is? You know, it's different. It's
more, it's not just rafters and gable ends, but they're stronger
that way. Those hips are strong. It's one
of the strongest roof systems that you can build. Our can't
catch it. I mean, it just goes over it,
but it's the way in any building. it's how those how those joints
are put together is where the strength comes from and the church
is like a building a body a building it's the bride of Christ but
the church is talked about it's like a building and it's fitly
framed together We just redid a house back home. We put vinyl
on the outside of it, and there wasn't nothing on it. It was
an old house, and a man did the best he could and done his addition
himself and tried to save money, and it's good enough for anybody.
But Joe, who's the lead carpenter, he fussed. He said, here I am
trying to read a square. He said, ain't nothing on a four,
ain't nothing on a six. He said, it's all on four and
three quarter. It's a four and a fourth, three
and a half. I mean, nothing matched. There
was 20-something corners in it, just zigzag back and forth, putting
vinyl on it. We'd go around the corner, and
there'd be a pipe we had to vinyl around. Over here was an old
window air conditioner. Over here was a gable. And then
they'd come up and said, we want from so far up, we want shakes
instead of just running the vinyl all the way up. It turned out
pretty, but man, it took some work. But that old house has
stood some storms. Even the front of it is logs,
and they want to leave that visible, so we vined around it, built
a new porch on it, put the soffit up and everything, we re-roofed
it, it's beautiful. But it stood because it's brace,
everything braces itself. And that's what we're supposed
to do, is brace one another. We're strength in numbers, there's
strength in this building. There's strength in you as a
people, praying for one another, holding one another up. When
one has a tendency to lean, when that one old rafter feels the
east wind or primarily where I'm from, the jet stream blows
out of the southwest or the northwest, primarily west. When that old
rafter feels it from the west and it's tempted to give a little,
you got another right here leans from the east and she ain't a-givin'. It'll stand. There'll be strength
in Calvary Baptist Church if you'll be that way with one another.
But if you try to go it alone, I'm not trying to be funny, but
you know, in a building, you take us men, some men just want
to be the stud, you know, amen? He's tough, he don't need nobody
else. That's what you frame walls with,
studs. I'm not saying that inappropriate, it makes sense to me. You know,
I can stand it, I'm tough. No, you're not. You need one
another. God made it that way. You need
one another. And we definitely need the Lord. We're nothing without him. But
he gives strength to us. He'll give us strength. I will
challenge you to strengthen that that remains. Anything that's
left that's of God is worth salvaging. Pray over it. Strengthen it.
Say, Lord, we got a little old Sunday school, but we thank you
for it. Strengthen it. Maybe others will
come. We don't know. Well, I know we've
been so affected by all of this stuff that's going on. I don't
even like to mention it, but it's affected everybody in every
way. And to me, it's just pure aggravation
to me. I get so frustrated, you know,
regardless of how you feel about it. It frustrates me. Just, I
just, I didn't know how good we had it before some of this
stuff come. I feel bad for taking times that
I complained and, you know, I was like, well, it's got to get better.
And then I'd take it back in a minute like that. Would you?
I would. What I thought was normal, that
I thought there was a better normal. Oh, give me the 90s,
the early 2000s. Give it back to me. That's the
way I feel coming from that point but we can't go back but we can
go forward. You say I think it's about over.
Well, we're marching home then. We're marching on home. I mean
the king is fixing to appear. Our leader and commander he's
fixing to show himself and I want to look good for him. I don't
want to be over here with my head buried under a stump somewhere.
I want to be standing as a soldier of the cross, strong in the Lord,
being strong in the Lord. I need the courage of Joshua.
I need the strength of Samson. I need the faith of Abraham.
I must have it. Last year when I left the meeting,
I preached here. I thought, Lord, I just cried
from the heart and didn't get anywhere, but I said, remember
me. I'll say that I'll remind you. Remember me. Pray for me. Pray for my own. One prayer request
that comes to mind. My mom's brother will have surgery
tomorrow. His name is Harold. Harold Wheeler.
And I called him and he cried. I always called him because there's
been many times that I thought he'll go under and it'll be heaven
before we meet again. But God's been gracious and he's
come through it. He's had open heart two times,
so many stents, valves replaced, it's unreal. It's amazing that
he's even still with us. He has surgery tomorrow. Would
you say a prayer sometime between now and first thing in the morning
at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville,
he'll have a serious procedure. But remember my Uncle Harold.
and remember me, remember my family. It's been a joy to be
here. Take on strength, church. Take on strength. Ask God, say,
Lord, strengthen our faith. Lord, strengthen our hands. Whatsoever
your hands find to do, do it with all of your might. Amen,
whatever it is. Pray for Brother Craig. God will
straighten you out of him that one. He didn't ask me to say
that. I thought that was so good. I was so happy in my heart when
that missionary said that, and we didn't have no troubles at
that church. As far as I know, you all don't have, but we're
all just people. We're all just people, and we
need the Lord. We're poor and needy, poor and
needy without him. It's been good to meet some of
you. It's been a blessing to see you. It's been good to be
here. If you're here tonight and you're unsaved, It is my
prayer that God would come and confront you and deal with you,
draw you to him, change your life, and you'll know what I
know. I want to be able to talk with you on that level that we've
got that in common. I'm rooting for you. I'm a-pulling
for you. Jesus died for you. God's good,
ain't he? God's good all the time. God
bless you. Appreciate you listening at us tonight. Brother Craig,
you come.
Put On Strength
Series February Revival 2021
| Sermon ID | 24211722185492 |
| Duration | 43:42 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Isaiah 52 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.