Good to see you here, I appreciate everybody coming out tonight. I'm gonna cry a little off, we're missing a few, leaving a few out sick, but I'm glad that you're here. Appreciate the Lord, I thank Him for everything that He's done. And everything that he has sent to us has been just exactly what we need. And the Lord knows what he's doing. He ain't some gray-haired old man sitting up in the sky, but he knows. But I'm glad that you're here tonight. We'll pray before we do anything else. We need the Lord. We need his help tonight. Does anybody have any objects on your heart? Work for those who tap see. Let's pray for the service tonight. Amen. All right, all the will of Cain. Jesus is my temple. Bless you all. I ride in the dark hours. Tell Him I could not see. Without Him there would I be, O Jesus. He is the rock upon which I stand. He is the present help in time of need. I've been feeling low, feel run down me. It's when every boy walks out, that's when he walks out. Once again, that He's my dearest friend. He's promised to go with me always, even till the end. Praise the Lord. Yeah. Praise the Lord. Yeah. He is the rock upon which I stand. He is the present help in time of need. And when this old world has left me all alone, I can feel him walking right by me. He'll bring everyone what's left, that's when he walks in. Once again that he's my dearest friend. He promised he'd go with me always, even till the end. I believe that the old songwriter knew what he was talking about. They said he is my all in all. What a friend he is. Glad that I know him tonight. Glad that he knows me. Glad I'm saved. Glad that I'm not what I used to be. We say that a lot, no doubt all of us. We say it a lot, but we better thank the Lord that we're not what we used to be. Amen. Because if we was, then we don't know it. He'll change us, won't he? Now you help me with this. before you I've not always been. I once was so broken and battered by sin. The story that I tell you Let's stand. ♪ I've traded for riches ♪ ♪ The ranks of my soul ♪ ♪ I gave him the pieces ♪ ♪ And he made me whole ♪ What did we have? ♪ I've heard him nothing ♪ Yeah, he gave me everything. Praise the Lord. He found a neighbor. Yes, sir. I found a king. You said he is so hard for you to believe. Well, all I can say is that I'm reading all of the stories this world has ever seen. There will never be a greater than how my Jesus loved me. ♪ I've traded for riches ♪ The rags of my soul ♪ I gave him the pieces ♪ And he made me whole What a Savior. What a friend. What a God we have. Praise the Lord. What did he give when he got us? A whole lot of nothing. But when I got healed, He taught everything. Everything. Didn't realize it when I was out in the world, but it was Him that was making my heart clean. It was Him that was leading the steps and guiding me. If the Lord wasn't looking out for a lost man, it all done been His hands. And that He's merciful to us. Good to be saved tonight. Amen. Miss Amber, you will sing, won't you? Bless you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. Think I'll keep on serving my Lord. Bless you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. Think I'll keep closing Jews' nails to our heads. Yeah. Sometimes all Satan says, there's no use to it. You know it's going to get worse as time goes by. I can hear the Lord say, I will be with you all the way. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen him move time and time again. And I know he'll go with me till the end. So I think I'll keep on serving him best I can. Some people may doubt what I feel. They may say that I'm going to serve my Lord anyway. But I think I'll keep on serving my Lord the best that I can. But I think I'll keep on serving my Lord the best that I can. ♪ I think I'll keep on till it's now started ♪ ♪ Though the valley may be deep and the mountain wide ♪ ♪ I know the Lord is gonna stand by my side ♪ ♪ So I think I'll keep on serving the Lord ♪ ♪ And the rest of my life I'll give to Him alone ♪ Yeah. Thank you all. Thank you, Lord. I've got a clean slate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Amen. Praise the lord. Thank you lord. Praise the lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Bless you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, lord. Sometimes I don't feel like traveling home. But somehow I'm weary of the fight. Sometimes I just want to go home. Always He is with me. Always He is with me. Always He is with me. Amen. Yeah. Yeah. Praise the Lord. Anybody else got a testimony? A song on your heart, anything you need to do for the Lord? I'm far from anything. But I am born again. And I'm ready to try to do my best tonight. But I don't want to get in anybody's way at all. This ain't get me, you might notice. Since I've heard about your mom. ♪ I could leave this soul alone at all this time ♪ Just slip away most any day to heaven's shore ♪ I'll find sweet rest beyond the day When I reach home, oh praise the Lord for you. Some sweet day after a while. When I walk up that great milky way. Bye and bye, goodbye, good morning. Oh, what a meeting that will be when I get home. Oh, Lord, hear my prayer before I leave. And I might leave, so might it follow me to the little home. ♪ You gave to me Lord, I hear thee roar ♪ I want to meet each one of them ♪ When life is through ♪ When I move up to Jerusalem ♪ When I step inside the room ♪ And look around me now ♪ I've already seen a million things through you ♪ So many friends I want to see ♪ When I, everybody real loud, when I reach home ♪ Oh, praise the Lord ♪ Come on. ♪ Some sweet day after a while ♪ ♪ When I woke up that gray, milky way ♪ ♪ My, my, my Lord, goodbye, oh, my Lord ♪ ♪ Good morning there before the throne ♪ ♪ Oh what a singing that will be when I get home again ♪ Praise the Lord. Amen, God's good to us tonight, amen. And I was thinking about what Dad might have said there to the lady's testimony. Man, if you didn't have anything in your house, the thief wouldn't be trying to break in. Amen. So if you got something valuable tonight, amen, we've got something valuable. Amen, and Lord, why, you might want to protect it. Watch for a thief tonight. get robbed. Amen. I love him tonight. Amen. I appreciate the Lord. You pray for us. We've been pondering this thought a day or two. I certainly don't claim to be much. Amen. I am a child of God. Amen. I want to do what I can for the Lord this evening. Amen. I love him today. He's been better to me than I've been to him. Over in the book of Mark tonight, chapter number four, Beginning at verse one, you prayed for me real good tonight. Went out on the porch this morning, took my coffee, went out there and sat down. Read for about 20 minutes. I was just trying to think of my thoughts, and here comes my neighbor. He pulled up, and now he wanted to talk about iron. Well, got off the, he left in the phone room and somebody brought, my daughter brought it out there and said it's so-and-so, I had to call them back. About 30 minutes later, I got to open my Bible and looked at my watch, it's already 2.30. And I've been out there all day, all morning almost. And you know, I thank God today. God already knows what we need. If you're looking at a man, if you're looking for somebody that can preach tonight, you're looking at the wrong one. I know who the preacher is. And I try my best to be the best vessel of honor and be that instrument for God to play. That's all in the world he'll ask of you. Christian friends, tonight is do the very best you can. Amen. All of us don't look the same. We don't wear the same shoes. We don't go on the same walks of life, but we're in life and God's using every one of us. for an instrument tonight, a vessel for him tonight in different walks of life, every state, different areas God is using you to be alive, amen. And so everybody's got a part in the body of Christ. They ain't no big eyes and they ain't no little youth. They don't matter. I've been in this a long time, that God would just soon bless that one that's been in it for three days. Amen. Sometimes some of us that's been in it a while thinks we've been in it a while and we're just all right. It's a pressing thing. You've got to press every day in this thing. You take a break and the thief will be at your door. Ain't that right? Well, and the Bible said, and he began to teach by the seaside, and there gathered unto him a great multitude that he entered into a ship and set in the sea. And the whole multitude was by the sea and on the land. And he taught them many parables, things by parables, and said unto them, this is in his doctrine, in his teaching, amen, hearken, behold, there went out a sower to sow. and it came to pass as he sowed some fell by the wayside and the vows of the hour came and divided it up and some fell on the stone on stony ground where it had not much earth and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had not root no root, it withered away. And sun fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit at spring up, and increased, and brought forth some thirty, some 60, and some 100, and he said unto them, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. That's all we read tonight, yeah. You do pray for me tonight. I'm not no scholar by any means tonight. I'm not, I ain't been to, I barely got out of school, and I probably ain't got much sense in a lot of things, but I know one thing tonight, I need the Lord, amen. To preach, if you don't know anything tonight, you better know that you need the Lord, amen. They can call you what they want, but amen, they won't call me, amen, a foolish man because a fool has said in his heart there's no God. I know there's a God, one God. There's one Father, one Son, one Holy God. Amen, I believe that in the Godhead tonight. Amen, but listen, we're talking about this evening, the sower that went out to sow. Amen, that word of God. Amen, I thought about all week long the messages that God has sent out down here to Cherith Brook, amen. And God give me this message out the other day, amen. I just want to tell you tonight, church, don't let the devil take what God's already given you. Amen, don't let the devil change anything down here. For the worst, my friend, you take the word of God that's been preached to you tonight and all through the week, and you keep it in your life, and you keep it in your heart, and you keep that determination because there's a real enemy out there. Amen, you think about the seed, my friend, that was cast by the way, My friend, you think about, amen, the fowls of the air that come, and they ain't stolen away. Oh, my friend, today, how many people, my friend, that sit under the Word of God that goes right out the door, and the devil take everything that whether they said, we're gonna do better, and we're gonna grow, and we're gonna pray, and we're gonna study our Bible, When we go out the door, something happens in our lives. And the powers of the earth have come and still it out. I thought about that. We've seen a lot, now don't get quiet on me. I ain't preaching you nothing new tonight. Somebody probably preach this better than I can. Amen, you won't enjoy it no more than I do. Hear me tonight. Father, oh it come, my friend. Amen, and it gobbled it up, took it away. Amen, and there's some that was thrown up on the stony ground. Amen, something was thrown up on the stony ground. And the Bible said that when it sprung up, amen, hey listen, the sun came out. And because it had no root, it withered away. But it'll take more than a profession, my friend. You ought to have something there. Thank you for the root, my friend. You ain't got no root this evening. Thank God today you borrowed the fruit from the root church. Pray for me a minute, will you? I'm gonna take my time. Amen with that seed that fell was the word of God. Amen, how many people's been robbed? They've been there maybe some that's come. And they said in the house of God. And they walked out the door and God spilled. He spanked them and pulled them. And they denied it. And the fowls had come. And the sun and light. And the passion of life had come. And burnt them down. And took them away. I'm reminded on the book of Judges chapter number six, you'll find that the children of God had sinned against him. He had sold them off to the Amorites. and they'd go out there and they'd play it in their fields. And here they'd come. Amen, they'd come up like grasshoppers and take all the increase away. My opinion on the devil don't like no increase in their lives. He don't want you to get on fire for God. Bring it up. You've got to stand. Word of God. I mean, he goes on to explain it. Amen. And then God, they begin to pray the enemy has got the children of God hiding in caves in the cliffs and the rocks and they're scared. And brother, they're afraid the enemy has got them suppressed. There's a lot of people sitting in the house of God suppressed. You live in fear every day. You live in fear of I can't. You live in the fear that I can't do good enough. Well, you're absolutely right. You can't do it tonight. It'll take the presence of an almighty God in your life to do anything. Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You can't die, but you ought to have had tonight. There's a real enemy to us. Ain't that right? There's a real enemy, Charlie. After this meeting's over, then we're gonna be held accountable for the messages that we've heard in this love. And we're about to plow to our love, or we'll come out the fall of the earth and steal it away. The Word of God. You ain't careful, that little phone will get in your way. Listen, I ain't preaching against your TVs and your phones, but if they take the place of God's Word, and it takes the place of God's Word, they'd be better off in the yard. And I'm telling you tonight, anything that pulls you away, you'd be better off without it. We're gonna pluck you out. Let her cut your hand off and enter into life's way, as enter into hell and go to hell. The enemy come up, Brother Nick, and every time they'd show, their fields would come up, and the enemy would come and take it. That's where some people are today. Ain't that right? They're sitting in that seat every Sunday. And better they hear a message. And they say, I'm gonna live after that. I'm gonna do that. And the enemy comes and takes it from me. Ain't that right? By the wayside, my papa every year, Brother Charlie and Epsom, I plow his garden. We never had a desk. He had a little rototiller out there. Every year, I was on the other end of that rototiller. And buddy, I was a-bustin' up the fallow ground. Ain't that what we need tonight? You know what the word does? It'll bust up the fallow ground, and it'll get all that That one won't burn, won't burn all through. And brother, if we intend it, we can have fun. I'd play on, I'd get to going. Pepper Hall right there, you're going too fast. I couldn't go fast enough. I tried to get it plowed. He said, you gotta let it get deeper than that. You gotta let it get deeper. You get a rock, throw it out. You get a root, throw it out. Are you with me? Hey man, about five or six times over the garden I'd go. But oh my goodness. Getting the rocks out. Getting all the things that can get in our way. Have a seed that can grow and bring pork food. I can see the green beans. I can see the taters. But before we can have all that, we gotta get this ground right. You have to get your ground right, or the enemy will take everything that's sowed in your mind. Ain't that right? He'll take it all, Charles. It ain't that the sowers quit sowing. It's that we quit receiving. We come in there with a stony heart. And we're like, I'll throw a seed on. And the seed will come. And because it's stony, it can't get no root. It can't get no growth. And when you can't get no growth, when you can't get no faithfulness, when you can't get no savior, you'll never burn through! Is that right? You'll never do that! You'll never do that! Hey, you have to get in it! You have to clean it up! You have to be clean! Be cleaned by the bashful of the Lord! You have to be clean! Ain't that right? Hey man, by the wayside, you gotta get in here! You gotta be faithful! There's some soul among the thornies, We come out there, and Popeye said, hey, come here and try this. I didn't throw the tail at it. He come out there, and he said, now, you gotta lay a straight row. It ain't no good. He took the corner of that hole and turned it around, placed it in the ground, and there he'd go. I don't know how he did it. It hit what strange could be, and I'd get up, I can do that. Now, I wouldn't hardly watch what I've done. I'd just drag it. Papaw said, you go back, you cover it all up. We're gonna lay off a straight road. You've gotta care. You've gotta care to know. You've gotta care. Somebody said, I don't care what anybody thinks about me. That's a wrong attitude. You're an ambassador. You're an ambassador to God, and he requires it of you. You better care. You better care. You'll never be a witness for God if you don't care. You better care. Them rows are straight. Them rows are straight. Then we get the seed out, son. Whether it was taters, whatever it might be, they had to be straight. They had to be right. I'd go out there and I'd make a little, you know, Pour a little water on it. He said, no, you're doing it wrong. Doing it wrong. Doing it wrong. We were talking about him doing it. He's done it all his life. Doing it wrong. Get it back out. Take it back out. Put it in again. Doing it right. Getting it in the good ground. Getting it down our way can get the minerals it needs. Amen, ain't that right? The deeper you get in this, the more minerals you got. The stronger you can grow, the more fruitful you become. Ain't that right? Come on with me now. You'll be able to stand the heat of the night. The enemy will come and take all the harvest. and they got the call out on God. And God heard them. Just like in the book of Judges, every time a judge would die, they'd run off after something else. After Samuel died and Joshua died, they took off running after other gods. You better be a Christian when your pastor ain't around. His eyes beholds all, both good and evil. He sees it all the time. And He's got His eyes on us. Ain't that right? He knows what you're listening to going down the road. He knows what you got in your eyeballs at home. He knows what you got on your phone. He knows what you've been looking at. You better not worry about the old man of God. You better worry about God. He can see it anyway. We're gonna buy fruit, we gotta be mean. We gotta be in the good grounds. You'll not break for 30, 60, and 100 laying on top of the ground, laying outside the garden, laying among the thorns. The Bible said, come out from among the world and be a shepherd, say, my Lord. You can't live among the thorns and be fruitful. You can't grow. Church, I don't want you to lose. I started out with people I had to disconnect with. I hated it, but Brother Gordon, I had to get away from church. Even good religious people, they said. All they was interested was the world, the world, the world. Go here, go there. When it come revival time, They went nowhere to be found. I said, you can't tell the difference between a Christian and a sinner. I beg the difference. You build a house of a life, amen. The Spirit take care of you. The Holy Ghost won't work. He'll blow, and it'll clean this. It's not worded like that in the word of God. He said, no, you're not, you're the temple of the Lord. You're the temple of the Lord. So it's common sense to know if you're living a filthy life, God ain't dwelling in that place. Ain't that right? Gotta clean it out. Right about the time, thinking about this, we move on. The evil spirit moved out, and that house was swept and garnished, but there wasn't nobody there. That's about like dressing up like a Christian, coming to the house of God, but the Holy Ghost, there ain't nobody there. It looks good, but there ain't nobody in there. It looks great, but there ain't nobody in there. Ain't that right? I still believe in the Holy Ghost. It don't scare me, it scares me to be without it. I wanna be led by him. 1989, I got a dose of it. I was thinking out there tonight, God told me to teach. I feel like the Lord wants me to tell somebody this. I started out preaching 14 years old, saved when I was 13, preaching when I was 14, backslid for two years, that don't count. That don't count. Them years that I run from God does not count. You hear me? Toward the good record. Those years that I run from God, I had thorns and thistles, I was among the stony places, I was beside the road, and the devil robbed me, and robbed me, and choked me out, and burnt me down, and choked me out, and robbed me from the good thing that God wanted to give me. If you're gonna live for the Lord, you gotta get out from among people that choke you out. Ain't that right? Year-round people don't do Christian things. They ain't Christian. You young people tonight, I don't know half, none of you. Amen, but I'm gonna tell you, it cost me a lot of friends from high school. I got them, buddy. They drank, they go to parties, they do it all, but when they die, to them, they're gonna be looking over the banister. I say you ain't either. You don't come too late to tell me that I've been there Nick. I've been there. I know what it is Child of God won't last in the world You'll have them completely killed You'll have no that you'll have no death. I How is it we sat in church for 10 years and never learned, for God so loved the world, that the game has only begun, sir? That whosoever would believe upon him should not perish, but have everlasting life. There's people that sat in church for 20 years, cannot quote that scripture. They have no depth. Them beans begin to grow and the corn begin to grow. You plant tomatoes, you go out there and stake them. When they get up so high, Papa will be out there every morning, every morning. You know what he was doing? Heaping the earth upon that stalk. Giving it depth. When you're born again, you come to the church, you're heaping the earth upon your stomach. You're getting the things that you need. You're raking the mineral from the word of God upon you. You're saying, feed me, water me, I need strength. But if you don't do that, them tomato plants, they'll fall from over. They'll all come over. You can tell when that garden's been taken care of. Do it to the corn. It took all day sometimes. I thought, God, help us. We're going to die out here. He said, boy, you like eating it. He said, you're going to help me grow it. Everybody likes to eat. Everybody likes to labor. Everybody likes to eat, ain't many like to work. Everybody wants to be a part of the parade, but ain't everybody wants to fight to die. Ain't that right? Hey, old David's out there. Who is it? Uncircumcised, faithless, that same God that delivered the lion and the bear. He's gonna deliver him. That's exactly what happened. Big old voice. Old Saul was the head above everybody. He's scared to death. He's already took his armor off. He's trying to give it to little kid. Hey, he's been lost all his desire. Ain't that right? But God's thoughts. Not our thoughts. Samuel, Samuel, Samuel. He's seen all them sons of Jesse passed by. That ain't him, that ain't him, that ain't him. Jesse ain't got no more. Oh yeah I do, he's out there in the field. Samuel said we ain't sitting down till he gets here. God begins to instruct him, don't you look on the outside of me. God ponders the heart of the man. And when he walks in, there's the king. There's the king. He'll say I'm the anointed and king that day. Guess what? He goes up there and slays a giant. Hey, if you're anointed tonight, you can overcome. But he had to be willing to serve. You got to be willing to work it. You got to be willing to work it. You got to be willing to serve. You got to be willing to fight the lion and fight the bear. The Bible said we got past the lion and we got past the bear. Then we went in the house, laid on the wall with our hand, and the serpent bit us. You didn't care if you'd be standing holding a victory flag one day and be shit the next. Then he'd say, hey, after we hold that guard to be weeds coming on. Look at them weeds on him, B. Hey, man, they're going up a cannery. No, no, we got to get out there and get them weeds, spend half the day or all day weeding. He'd say, now go get that row tiller out of the shed. Go up the middle of him aisle. Don't you get over on it. He said, you straight on that aisle. And then you figure out why you laid the straight row. Because it's easier to move it straight than it is to lay it. I'm telling you tonight, if you do it right the first time, it'll be easy. Hey, listen to me. If you want to die free, stay in the good grave. I ain't learned much, but I learned something. Come harvest time. There's them big old long beans. He said, see what you get for doing it right. There's them big old maiters. I can't grow maiters today. I can grow them to die. That's about it. I growed a big ol' patch of maters one year. I'm going somewhere, okay? I'm not trying to tell tales. I growed, me and my wife, we got us some of them big ol' stripings. Man, we love them on bread, you know, with mayonnaise. Brother Gordon, we went out there and planted, and all I could see was them big ol' red stripings. And all I could see was them yellow stripers. And I got me some of them beef hearts. I got me some of them, I know. And oh man, they get big and you cut them and hot, hot, it covers the bread. And all I think about is Duke's mayonnaise, maters, and good bread. Oh! And I went down there and we sold them things and they began to grow. And I said, Lord, man, look at that. Woo! I said, Gordon, look! I said, Gina, look at that man alive! We're doing a good job. I never went down there to check him. I was inexperienced. How you gonna get experienced? You come to the house of God. You listen to your teacher. You listen to the man of God. That's how you get experienced. Don't learn it the hard way. Most of us do. Have to learn it the hard way. But if you'll listen, God will save you a lot of trouble. Down there, man, them old maters about like that in green. I was about sick. Hey, them stalks was that big around. I thought, what in the world? My other law, he come out there and he said, I tell you what it is. I said, what is it? You tell me, I don't know. He said, you didn't get the suckers off. He said, they're robbing the nutrients from your limbs. That way you ain't getting no money. I said, what in the world's a sucker? Them suckers, man, they'll rob you. I know that now. Hey, I know it now, nigga. I know what a sucker is. And I stare at one every day. You ain't careful, you'll be that one in the mirror. Sucker, sucker, sucker. I don't want to drain nothing out somebody. I want to add to them. Hey, I don't want to complain to you. I want to tell Jesus about it. He said, if you broke them suckers off, you'd have big ol' majors. I was like, well, you know what I did? I went out and pulled them up. I said, Phooey, I'll go down here to Food City, five dollars a pound. Hey, if we don't mind them, hey, we'll be paying way too much. If you don't take care of your garden, if you don't take care of your heart, if you don't guard your spiritual life, you're gonna pay way more than you deserve. The bill will be too expensive. You can't afford it. You cannot afford it. Children of God, they went against God and sent the enemy. They took everything they had and they realized we can't afford it. So God sent the angel down there under the oak tree. There's old Gideon down there out thrusting wheat by the wine press. He was a mighty man of valor. Boy, he looked around, he said, boy, we're poor in Manassas. You telling me I'm a mighty man of valor? There's something wrong with you. See, the devil don't want you to know tonight, greater than he is in you and he's in the world. You're not tending it right, you'll never know what lies within you. You'll be choked out, burned up, carried away, and say, look at all them hypocrites down there at church. That's the work of the enemy. That's the work of the enemy. Said, O'Giddy, long story short, hope you read it. Knock, go home, knock, read it. Judges 6, 7, you read it, I'll read it. Turned out, O'Giddy was a mighty man about it. But buddy, I'll tell you what he did, though, what a lot of us don't do. He went down there and put that fleece in the floor. It's gonna happen, let the fleece be wet and the ground be dry. Went back, that's right, now I'm gonna try it one more time. See, the Bible said to try the Spirit to see the being of God. We get in trouble a lot of time, we're not trying the Spirit. The Bible said not to lay hands on any man suddenly. That means, hey, you better watch what you amen out my man. You better know, you better know what seed he's from. You better know where he's coming from. There's people setting the church out. You can preach Mary had a little lamb and to exceed, I guess that'd be all right. But I'm telling you to not fall. Hey listen, there's a lot of people, Brother Charlie, they believe every wind and dark. Every wind and dark. Now you know Mary had Jesus, was the lamb of God, all right? Amen, we can preach that. Mary had a little lamb ain't in the Bible. You hear me? But the lamb is, and Mary is. Take that devil. We get up and we try to be politically correct. We try to do it right by the way the school outlined it for us. What we read tonight, red and black. Throw it away if it's any other color. My pastor said this, my deacon said that, my teacher said that, but it didn't come out of the word of God. Better watch what seed you're sowing. Get in, said, okay, I'm going. He went down there and he started what, with 30,000 men? God said, take them. Well, he went from 30 all the way down there. Them, they lacked like a dog. 300 men. I think it was 10,000, wasn't it? They just fleed right out, right out of the gate. Ain't everybody that tells you that they're gonna fight for you, fight with you. Ain't that right? Ain't everybody that says Lord, Lord? Ain't nobody gonna fight with you. A lot of people fight against you. That's them people I told you you did not need. At the end of the season, we had a good crop. Papa always had a good garden. But he worked hard to have it. Preacher, I don't believe in faith by works. I don't eat it, but I believe works because you have faith. He called us into a good work. Faith without works is dead, likewise works without faith is dead. It's dead. I don't come to church to be saved, I come because I am. I don't come to midweek service because, that I want to be saved, it's because I am. I come to Sunday school, I come in the evening, I'm here because I love the Lord. You got children, you're trying to educate them children. A brother preached to us about it happened to him. I'm not trying to recap, but listen, don't let the devil steal what you heard. Don't let the devil steal that desire to grow. I tell you, don't let the devil steal that right choice from you. Don't let the devil steal that thought. Don't let the devil steal that seed. Don't let the devil ruin your harvest. Study on Jericho real quick. Real quick. You don't really say this in the book, don't? No, but I studied about Jericho. There was a well down there. And the Jordan was overflowing. And God said, go up there and march around that city seven times. or six times, and on the seventh day, you'll march. 13 times, they went around the city, and the walls fell. Now, what would happen if they quit? He said, just hush and walk. Don't say a word till we tell you. Till you hear the long blow on the trunk. On the horn. Then you shout. Then you shout. And he said, the walls are going to fall flat. You ain't going to have to climb over them. You're going to walk over them. Looks like it. Got the pavement away. I studied about that. You know where the harvest was? The history teaches that there was a harvest in Jericho. The harvest had been put in Jericho. You know what the devil's doing? He's robbing people of their harvest. We quit. too short of the end of our journey. We start at point A, we run good for a while, we slow down, we run up, and so time we quit before we get to Harvard. What happens in the middle of the summer, it gets too hot, it ain't worth fooling with, it ain't worth going down there to that garden, you know what happens? In the fall, you ain't got no beans, you ain't got no corn, you ain't got no peppers, you ain't got no tomatoes, you ain't got nothing to show for the work that you put in your garden. If people could look at this spiritually, hey, what am I looking at tonight? Jesus said, he said, you say it's four months to her. He said, but I'm telling you right now, it's rock, it's rainy. But where's the laborers? There's a young fellow here, said he's looking for a church. Where you found one? There's a whale down here. There's a harvest down here. There's the words down here. Corrections down here. Rebukes down here. Exhortings down here. Every message that Paul told Timothy, rebuke, exhort, and what? Reprove. It's all the preaching of the word of God. You can't just have it, Jordy. Men would think he could do it on his own. Ain't that right? Some of you daddies, no matter how strong you are, when your children get obeyed, if you don't put the right thing in them, the right seed in them, you'll never be strong enough to pull them out of the world if you don't put Jesus in them right now. All they see is cussing at home and praising at church. There's a good chance they'll end up My brother said, just like mom and daddy. Is that right? You entertain them with the world and they'll expect it. When they grow their flesh and expect that. There's no comfort in the world. Brother Bobby, there's no comfort out there. You'll look at that garden and you'll say, man, I wish I'd done this. You know, a little more time and I'd had something good. Gideon goes down there, them great armies that laid out there like grasshoppers. One night they disguised themselves, went down into the camp and overheard them talking about old Gideon. That mighty man of valor, and he never done nothing to them. Gideon is not lifting up a sword. Gideon is not sucking his fist. It's God that said, look down there at that mighty man of valor. It ain't your name and lot. It ain't everybody know you. It's about being in the Lamb's book of life, being called by Jesus. You preachers may never pastor what they do. If you've got to call and preach, you preach to two, you preach to three, you preach to a hundred. If you can't preach to two or three, don't try to preach to a hundred. Brother Gordon had a man years ago, I opened up a little old church down there by the river in Segovia. He said, It's harder when you get a good crowd or a homecoming or something. Call me and I'll come down there and preach for you. I lost his phone number. It went somewhere. You know what I did? I called a man that was hungry to feed somebody. I called a man that had that compassion upon the sheep of God. I called a man, and me and my friends, that wasn't in it for this. He came! Made a mess out of his life. But if you try to do it on your own, you're gonna make a mess. I wouldn't wear his shoes for his socks. Whatever way you want to call it. I hated that. But when pride comes, hey, pride comes before it's fun. I'm about done. Now, when we look at this, it should not be possible for 300 men to not even have to lift up a sword. You need to take your fire, take your vessel, your pitcher, you cover that fire, and you take your horns. You're going to war with a horn. That's all right. He said, you go on this side, you fight this side, we'll fight, we'll go down the middle, you go to the right, we'll go to the left, whatever. He said, when you hear the sound, he said, break the pitchers. The sword of the Lord. Put them on the run. Never had to kill nobody. They turned on one another. I'll tell you what you do if you serve the Lord, the enemy will have to set what you eat. You have to set what you eat. If you take it in your life, if you grow with it, you ought to make your enemy set what you eat. So I said it last night, Ephesians 6, put on the whole armor of God. When you stand, take up, he said, when you can do all you can do, stand. How do we stand? Take on the whole armor of God. Crime and salvation. Sword and spirit. Rest and later righteous. Have your feet sodden in preparation of gospel. Have your loins girt about with truth. Can't throw the shield down. Yeah. Sure can't throw the sword down. That harvest is here, church. The harvest is here. Yeah. We can keep what you've heard. Take the weeds out. Amen. Throw the rock out. Get in. Get in it. Get in it. Stay in it. Stay in it. When the seasons pass, you'll bear the fruit. God never said, God never said it's gonna be easy. But he made it possible. He's seen his only begotten son. That we couldn't be a winner at the end of this thing. I look back on two years of my life, and I wasted it in the world. I look back, I see an old shabby garden with dead mayors, dead beans, dead tape. I mean, listen, it was all right. There was nothing worthy to eat out of that old garden. There laid the rocks. There was the weeds. There was the thorns and thorns. I was choked. I was burned up. I had no debt. Hear me? Done things I thought I'd never do. Been places I thought I'd never be. You're not looking at somebody that deserves it. I'm not looking at people that deserve it. But I'm looking at a people where justice called and mercy answered. Justice called, mercy answered. That's what we are tonight. We're them whosoever will. How many of them whomsoever will? How many times has God has just come to the piano? I'm doing okay. I'm doing the very best I can, listen. And the way it come out tonight, guess what? That ain't the way I thought. His thoughts are far better. Thank you, Gordon. That just reminded me. His thoughts are different. Can I say, you young preachers, don't ever get to where you think that you know what God wants to do with you. As far as preaching. You say, when I get up here, I'm gonna open up like this. You gotta be careful. You gotta learn. Trust me, I've been in a place, I've had to have my mouth filled with rapists. Y'all smoked my brakes. Real men. I've had to apologize more than once. You mean you're the preacher, you had to apologize for what you preach? Yes, I did, because it wasn't in the book. Go back and make it right. You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to stand up here and mess it up? You be a man enough to He'll open up doors where no man can shut. Church, please, I beg you tonight. Hang on to what you've heard. One writer said, all we can tell you is what we've seen and heard. Tell somebody what God's doing for you. Brother, stand up back there while I go up, so I'm telling everybody everywhere I go. You don't have to be a preacher to tell somebody about Jesus. Be a woman. You women don't be afraid of having a good testimony. You don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of having knowledge. Brother Gordon, I had a girl years ago in the church right down there at Princeton, matter of fact. Every time she'd get up to sing, she'd quote Deuteronomy 28. I looked around and saw them old deacons, boy, and their stud nose, sticking their chest out like they was mad. Well, I was younger then. I was froggy then. You know what I did? I jumped up and said, hey, if you're jealous because a woman can quote more scripture than you men, read your Bible. That's all I can tell you. Learn the Bible. I guarantee you one thing, you prune yourself before you prune anybody else. These preachers can tell you, they take us home with them. When they're getting the message prepared, they're preaching to themselves. It's gotta come to 130 Skelton Road before he can come here. Amen. Them seeds, that Word. God give us ability by His Spirit. to see into these things. The prophets wanted to see and couldn't. Maybe here, I mean listen, I know we've had people on our way, but they wouldn't, hey listen, good. Be repeater, come up, come up, come up. You don't leave your help here, you take it and come and get it. Maybe you've been beside. Maybe you've been above the rocks. Maybe you've been in the thorny places. Maybe you find yourself in the good ground. Good. Then you can borrow the firmness of both. So many times God brings us out and we look down our nose at people. You tell me that's the love of God? That ain't the love of God. I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what God did about that. He sent his son to die on the cross. That, like I say, is whoever we, every man, boy, girl, and woman of the age of cannabinoid can get this. Can have peace. Can have peace. Ten you got it. Dig it up. Do it right. At the end of it. Hardness. You'll have that. Good thing. You'll have the good thing. No matter how much you gotta pray, you ride the honor to heaven. Don't you back away from it to heaven. Did you fail today? Everybody has, I guarantee you. Have we come short this week in revival? Oh, yes, we have. We probably could have said a little more. I mean, listen. There's no great and there's no little. This will be as you said, a witchcraft. Come on. I'm one of them, I know, I know. I'm not ignorant. I know we're all human and we're not gonna swing from these chandeliers every time we come to church. We're in the flesh. But there ought to be a few times. There ought to be some times that the spirit just swings through the place. I get troubled, don't you? I've seen the spirit in this place. Hey, child. Gordon, I mean, I've seen the spirit in this place. Somebody say, you mean you've seen it? Look here. Look here, I mean, every line. Look here, the Spirit's in this place. The Spirit drove them to God. It's in this place. We've seen the glory of God, right? Just right now, people's changed. Hey, I felt the glory of God up here. He's right down my back, my old buddy. I appreciate God. I appreciate everybody that's praying. Preachers ain't like auctioneers. They ain't gonna tell me they can't come to heart. I preached them many times and nobody moved. What'd you do? I went back and preached again. Go back and preach again. Go back and preach again. People didn't shout every time I preached, Charlie. What'd you do? Go back and preach again. By the grace of God, I went back. You gotta keep chopping. And every now and then, don't be afraid to pull over and sharpen your ax. Let somebody else help you. You men, these preachers, help Charlie. I mean, listen, I'm gonna help you tonight. He may need to sit down and sharpen his ax. Yeah. That's the truth, ain't it? We're gonna not take all the help. If a man comes in down at the church and I know him, he's gonna preach, if he will. Somebody says, man, I don't know if Lord wants me to help him. God sends his help with Bobby. There's a time when I thought I had to preach every time I went to church. Even as a pastor, I'd have many committees sitting down, good and evil. I thought I had to preach. Old Charlie hadn't learned. You ain't getting so far out if you let God help you. You didn't get so discouraged if you let God have you. Is that right? Is that right? God ain't got no jealous men. Amen. Yes sir. God ain't got no jealous men. That's right. God ain't got no jealous men. There's ain't no more jealousy in you than I can hurt you with. That's right. You're harmless. You're harmless. But love stronger than death. I do love you tonight. I appreciate tomorrow.