Transcription
Brother Paul Mooney, pastor of Calvary Tabernacle, Indianapolis, Indiana, a man of God, comes to open his heart and the Word of God to us. Let us receive him in the name of the Lord Jesus. Let's worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! Give Him praise. God, we honor You. How many know the name that is above every name? Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Let's exalt that name together. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Has He made a way for you? As I talked to your heart lately? Amen. You may be seated.
What a tremendous keynote sermon has been brought to us by Brother Anthony Mangan. My goodness, you have done more than keynote this meeting; you have challenged our hearts very, very deeply. We will not forget the impact of that sermon. I know you could go home right now and say it has been worth the trip to Alexandria just to hear what the Lord has blessed us with already. Amen. I mean that. I give honor to this great church and, of course, to Pastors Mangan. And we are always honored to be near them and receive so much when we're in their presence. And, of course, to our brother Ershon, we love him and appreciate him. And for the Kilgore doll, the minister's brother Tinnie, God bless you. Thank you for that introduction. It's good to be at Louisiana. This is a great district, and through the years, traditionally, this district has presented us with the challenges of revival, great meetings that are held here. This because of the times, meeting has impacted lives over and over and over again. It's our honor to be here. And, of course, pure gold and then the camp meetings and all the things that happen in this district. What a tremendous thing.
I'd like to direct your attention for a little while to Second Corinthians, chapter number three, and verse number 18. Second Corinthians, chapter three, and verse number 18. I saw her earlier, I don't see her right now, but I want to give honor to Sister June Starr. It's nice to be with her. I'm always delighted when I'm able to be in services with her. God bless you, Sister Starr. Thank you for the tremendous impact you've made on our lives. Sister Mooney and I love you very, very much.
Second Corinthians, chapter three, and verse number 18: "But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." But we are all changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. You may be seated.
Thank you. It's my personal feeling, and I'm sure you would concur, that Pentecost was really a call to the old man. It was called the old nature. It was called away from human self-dependency to God dependency. For Pentecostals to move away from Pentecost is the most ludicrous idea that I could think of. Not long ago, I was traveling, and just a few months ago, I was very, very tired, and I had a long layover in an airport. And I walked down a long corridor, got to the end of the corridor, and there was my gate. And the place was empty. There wasn't a soul in sight except for a few people that were working, hammering around, doing some kind of repairs. And it was early. I was tired. And there was a bench there. There was no one sitting on it. And I was tired, and it was early. So I dispensed with all dignity, wadded up my coat, made myself a pillow, stretched my huge frame on that little bench. I don't know how much time elapsed. I can't remember, but quite a time. When I woke up, I woke myself up snoring, as a matter of fact, just sawing logs like you wouldn't believe, just snoring away. Open my eyes, I am totally surrounded. Dozens of people. And one lady crocheting, sitting right next to my head. I mean, my head is almost in her lap, crocheting. And here's what she said to me: she said, "Took a little nap, did you?" And I said to her, "How loud did I get?" She said, "Pretty loud. Pretty loud." Major embarrassment, to be sure. But you know, I thought about that the rest of the day. And I think something's happening in our movement. I think for a long time we've made ourselves a little pillow, and we've stretched out. But we're waking up, and we're snoring, and there's something about it that's quite embarrassing. As we have been so impacted here by this keynote sermon, we realize that we have been asleep, and that we've not done as much as we ought to have done. And may God help us. I don't know if you feel like I feel tonight, but I'm tired of snoozing on the bench. I'm tired of snoring. There's something inside of me tonight that says, "I want to get back to Pentecost." Talk to me one more time. Something inside of me that says, "Lord, touch me with Your Spirit. Don't deny me the opportunity." See, I don't want the Spirit of the Lord to deny me the opportunity to be part of whatever He wants to do in these last times. I want to be a worker together with God. I want to be a partaker in His divine nature. But I can't sleep and get that done. And I believe that's what Pentecost is all about.
If I could say that to you tonight, in all due respect, I believe we Pentecostals have forgotten the idea in God's mind behind Pentecost. The whole idea of Pentecost was to strip us of our flesh and our human dependency and bring us through a place where we could know Him in the power and in the glory of His resurrection. Somebody say Hallelujah! I don't believe Pentecost was a blender. When those men and women staggered into that widow's upper room, and they came out with a whole new concept, and a whole new idea, and a whole new infusion of faith, and they could face unperturbed the challenge of the cross, and they could face the persecution without ever looking back. I don't think God made a mistake when He spiritually transformed them. And I don't think God is making a mistake with us as a movement when He calls to us and challenges us to learn how to depend on Him again. See, I don't believe, and I'm sure you know this is true, I don't believe the children of Israel got out of the wilderness because they were good at map study. I believe the Holy Spirit led them and talked to them and kept them. And when they depended on the Lord, He provided for them and watched over them. And the journey would have been much shorter if they would only leaned more fully on Him.
Now, I have to talk to you out of my heart because we've gathered from many places, and we're all serious about being here. And so I think the most important thing we can do is just talk to one another these few days out of our hearts. And there's some, there are some things inside of me that are not as fully yielded to God as they ought to be. And when I think of Pentecost, and I think of the working of the Spirit in my life, that's the challenge of it all: to do what God has called us to do, not just to learn how to read the maps, and not how to function, and how to perform, and how to become professional. As a matter of fact, there's something horribly, there's something horribly ugly about people who are merely professional, especially when we claim to be the people of the name, and we say we're filled with the Holy Ghost. Well, if that's true, then let's let the Holy Ghost lead us and guide us and help us and strengthen us and deliver us. How many believe the Lord is able to keep us? How many believe He's got His hand on us? How many believe He knows how to stir us and to move us closer to Him? Clap your hands one more time to the Lord. Hallelujah!
Let's see. That's the challenge for me. I remember when I was growing up, we had a man that came by our church often. I hope he isn't here tonight. It's always the risk you're running in a meeting like this. I'll be careful, in all due respect. But he used to say, "It behooves us." And he said, "It behooves us" so many times that we used to guess before he preached how many times he would say, "It behooves us." And the closest one won a free trip to the hamburger joint. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Am I preaching over your head now? Don't sit there like you've never played some little game like this. And "it behooves us," he used to say. Mickey, remember? He used to say, "These are bad times. It behooves us. The Lord's talking to us, and it behooves us." And we just go on and on. Counter will. I feel His Spirit here tonight. And I want to say to you, these times call on us. It behooves us to live for God. These times behoove us to walk right. I don't know what "but who" means, but he said it, and I want to say it to you: these are critical times. Somehow you've got to get back to Pentecost.
Now, look, I don't, you'll forgive me for this, Brother Mangan, because I'm not trying to interpret, and I feel almost, I feel bad about what I'm going to do, but I'm going to do it anyway. I feel like a commentator getting ready to interpret the President's speech. You'll forgive me. But what this man, I think, at least this is what he said to me, he's he's trying to communicate with us: the success of winning souls is not a magnificent facility like this. It's not a talented choir like this. It's not a gifted orator like this. It's something deeper. It has to do with the attitude of the heart. It has to do with an understanding of the power of Pentecost. And I believe that's what the Apostle is trying to say here. He said, "When we take a look at this, and when we think about this, understand that the Spirit of the Lord is trying us and keeping us, and we are all moving from glory to glory, from faith to faith, and we're moving into the image of Jesus Christ. We're becoming more like Him, not through human talent or effort, but by His Spirit. Not by might, not by power, but by His Spirit. Not because we're good map readers, but because we're yielded to the Lord. Not because we know the angles, but because we're submitted to Jesus Christ."
My father, and his only way, could be very profound. He was just a few hours away from leaving us. I remember that trip up to the hospital. If it was yesterday, it's been several years now. And I talked to him. I said, "Dad, you know, you're dying." He and I were alone in that room for a little while. And he said, "Yes." I said, "Is there anything you want to talk about? Maybe something that we need to discuss?" He said, "Paul, had you come a few days ago, I maybe would have said some things to ease it, but now I think I've got it all under the blood of Jesus Christ." I said, "Well, Dad, say something to me. How would you live your life differently?" Probably wasn't a fair question, but it just kind of came out. He looked at me and he said, "Paul, I spent too much time mowing grass." And he knew that I would know what he meant by that. We had acres and acres of lawn. I spent most of my childhood mowing grass. You're looking at the world's number one grass mower. I dreaded coming home just to keep the grass up. You had to get off the bus, grab a sandwich, go directly to the barn, barn, crank the old tractor, and get out there. Moo, moo, moo, moo. And I said, "Thanks, Dad. Been nice if you could have thought of this a few years ago." And he grabbed my hand and forced me to be serious. And he said, "No, really. Don't waste your time on trivial things. Now listen to me, Pentecostal. We're at the most crucial time." Thank you, Sister Tinnie, for talking to us the way you did and reminding us that these are very serious times. And you have got to let go of some of the grass mowing, if I can say that to you tonight. You've got to let go of some of the trivial things. You've got to stop finding fault with everybody. You've got to stop criticizing every little thing. Somehow get back to Pentecost. Get back to being real, being on fire for God. See, the whole pressure here. Let's change. Let's be what God wants us to be. Let's let the Holy Ghost lead us. The Spirit lead us. Let's let the anointing touch us one more time. You say, "I can never do what they do here. I don't have church big enough for talent enough." No, a thousand times no. Yield your life to the Holy Spirit, and He is able to use you and guide you and help you.
I like that verse of scripture found in Haggai, where the prophet says, "You know, the problem with my people is the seed is still in the barn." I mean, how can you expect to have a crop when the seed is still in the barn? Now, that's where we are. Some of us are in the barn too much time in the barn. When are you going to invest yourself? When are you going to say, "I'm not going to hold myself back anymore. I'm going to get myself there." See, you're the seed. Do I have to tell you tonight? The veil has been rent in twain. You can enter in. You can touch Him. You can be part of this thing. The Holy Ghost wants to make us real on the inside. And it's that character, it's that Pentecostalism, it's that touch of the fire of God that will be the most wonderful and powerful thing that could ever happen to us. We're snoring on the bench. It's time to wake up and say, "I'm tired of this business. I want the Lord to bring me back."
1990 is an interesting year because the controversy of the lip-syncers was very big this year. People who saw that they could make their living by faking it, and some of these people even won awards. See, that's the thing Pentecost does for you. It takes away all that kind of business. Makes you real on the inside. If you're not real on the inside, then you don't have anything to contribute to this apostolic revival in the last days. You have to be real on the inside. And some group, I can't remember their name, Milli Vanilli or something like that, headed, they won awards for singing, and they wasn't even singing. Then there was another lady who was a very seductive, beautiful young woman who made videos and won all kinds of awards. But come to find out, it was a big fat lady singing in the background. Yes. You know what that tells me? Folks are not interested so much in music as they are image. Now, that can happen in the church. We can get more interested in style and image than we are character and spiritual power and reality. We need a quick learn about what kind of clothes we have on, if I can say that, or what kind of shoes we're wearing. And say, "God, take me back to Pentecost. Take me back to an old-fashioned anointing. Take me back to the place where I can see Your Spirit one more time." Hallelujah! Somebody help me preach just a little bit. You understand what I'm talking about tonight? Do you know since Elvis Presley has died, there are 8,290 Elvis impersonators working in North America right now? Imagine. Now, is that what we're going to become as Pentecostals in this generation? Just Pentecostal impersonators? Mere lip-syncers? I mean, we can do two things. We can take home Mickey Mangan's tapes. And can you imagine me on Sunday night lip-syncing that operation there? Tim loaned me some of your tapes. I'm gonna try that on the road next time. Just how foolish that would be, and how unproductive that would be. How much I think that's what I like about the singers of the sixties. You know, they couldn't sing, but they had it in their heart. I mean, it was they revolutionized. I remember Indianapolis when when Johnson was there, and he was making his speech right in the middle of the Vietnam War. And there was a big rally in downtown Indianapolis. And I remember going there, and then I was drawn away from Johnson over to another rally over on the World War II Memorial, over the Army Memorial over there. And they had guys up on there. I'll never forget this guy up there with a guitar, and he was stomping his foot, and he was singing, "No more, no more, no more marching. No more, no more. A dirty war. No more, no more." The people are stunned. And I can't think of, there was a John or Dylan or somebody, I can't remember all their names now, but they moved a nation. They really did. It wasn't that when you go back and listen to them sing now, they sound horrible, but they had something in their heart. If you're not careful, that's the part you're gonna miss. God's not looking for talent. He's not looking for special gifts. He's looking for people that are not ashamed to go back to Pentecost and say, "God, I need Your anointing. I need Your touch. I'm nothing. I can't do anything without You, God." Somebody help me preach just a little bit. Somebody that's not ashamed to talk to the Lord. Somebody that's not ashamed to spend your days on your face in prayer. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I've got a little challenge for you tonight. Let's let our churches be Pentecostal. Let's let our choirs be Pentecostal. Let's let our preachers be Pentecostal. Let's let our lives reflect the glory of God as it shines to us. Clap your hands one more time to the Lord. Hallelujah! I don't want to be a, I don't want to be a lip-syncer in these times, do you? I don't want to be just an impersonator. I want, I want to really be able to say, "I've been on the mountain with Jesus. I talked to Him. I spent the night in prayer. I'm not just sermonizing. I'm talking to you about something that's in my heart." And I believe it's that kind of preaching and that kind of singing that will touch the world. I'm going to tell you the truth. I don't care how fat Patty Sandi Patty gets. I say some of the dumbest things. Now, I have to explain, you know, Mickey, I do hope you'll go back to the room with me tonight. God bless you. Hi. You know, in Indiana, they're concerned about how, yeah, rotund Sandy's getting. I read an article not too long ago in the papers. I'm not making this up. And this isn't derogatory. I don't care how fat you get, the lady can sing. So I want to tell you something, Mickey Mangan, I don't care how fat you get. I don't care how old you get. I don't care how wrinkled you get. Just keep on singing in the Holy Ghost. That's what matters. You understand what I'm preaching to you about tonight? We need to give up on all this vanity and all this junk and say, "What really matters is that you've been to Calvary. What really matters is you know something about Jesus Christ." Jeff, it doesn't matter how ugly you are. I still love you in the Holy Ghost. And you know, an editor, somebody say Hallelujah! Be real. Get kickback. Certain something on the inside.
Now, look, let me, let me move quickly. There are four major characters in the Bible whose names the Lord changed. There are others, but there are four people that, if I could say it this way, that God called to a special spiritual apex, a spiritual dimension. And once He got them there, He changed their names as a way of marking that event. Pentecost, to me, is the place where God stated to the human race that what you are in the flesh doesn't matter anymore. What you can accomplish in the secular world doesn't mean beans when it comes down to the final analysis. But it's what you are in the Spirit. We're looking through a glass now. The veil has been ripped. We're seeing the image and glory of God. And Paul said, "And we are being changed. We're being moved and motivated and strengthened and brought into that with Jesus Christ." That's what Pentecost is all about. That's why you can't leave it. That's why you can't forsake it. That's why you can't be enticed to move away from the Pentecostal blessing and the Pentecostal doctrine and the Pentecostal life. You've got to stay there. That's where the glory is going to be. That's where the anointing is going to be. God is going to use spiritual people in these last days. God's going to use Holy Ghost anointed people in these last days.
So God called to these men. I'd like to suggest to you that God called to a man by the name of Saul, or Saw, and changed his name to Paul. Now, let me confess something to you. There's a little bit of Saul in me. When I hear so often in my private devotions, now is the call of God to the Saul in me to get back to Pentecost and crucify that old flesh. I believe there's a little bit of Saul in our movement. A little bit of Saul in every heart in this place, perhaps. And I'm not trying to make you share in any particular confession that you may think I'm saying. But I just think there's a little something inside of us. He was a man dependent on his credentials, dependent on what he was in the flesh, dependent on his education. He was the Pharisees' Pharisee. So he was dependent on his religion and his training. He sat at the feet of Gamaliel. And so he could say, "Look at me, I am, I am more advanced educationally than others. I earn more events spiritually than others." Now, watch this. If you start leaning on your understanding, your education, or your credentials, you will not be part of what God is doing. That's what Pentecost is about. The reason God calls us to Pentecost is to show us that apart from our flesh, apart from our minds, our innate. Did you know the Bible said the world by wisdom knew not God? That's what Pentecost is all about. When you kneel at the altar and you begin to speak with other tongues as the Spirit of God gives the utterance, that's God's way of saying to you, "Give up on the flesh. Give up on your own understanding. Give up on your own ideas. Turn it loose." Can you hear it? How many Sauls tonight, I wonder, can hear the Spirit? And I pray during this week that the Spirit of the Lord will speak to every Saul like spirit in this place. All of us that would think that our credentials buy us something, doesn't buy you anything in the Holy Ghost. And thank God for every talented person, for everything, but that doesn't buy you anything. And so there's a call of the Holy Spirit to every Saul in this place to bring, come on, Sauls, bring it all at the foot of the cross. Bring it to that Pentecostal experience and say, as Paul finally got to the place, how incredible, Brother Kilgore, that he could say, "All the things that I am in my flesh, I counted as done." I mean, he could not have picked language that was any more, any more plain. I mean, it was brutal, almost street language. He said, "Look, do you understand what I am in the flesh is done? It's nothing." Street, Holy Spirit, speak to every Saul part of me and bring me back to Pentecost where I can say, "I'm being formed." And being formed, there's a Saul nature that the Holy Spirit, that Pentecost cries out to.
Now, I personally believe, I concur with you, Brother Mangan. I don't believe revival depends on anything. And you said it so profoundly tonight that what happened after you got the burden was dramatic. Well, that's true for all of us. What happens after our hearts get yielded to God is clearly dramatic. Everything about this. Look, there's nothing about the church that's secular. It's all spiritual. There's nothing about the church that's temporal. It's all eternal. If you think you can work for God and please God in the flesh, you have made a sad, tragic error. You truly are. So don't glory in the flesh. There's nothing you can present to God that's fleshly that God will respect. He knows what you are in the flesh. He knows what you would be if it wasn't for His grace. Take your mind and soul and body to Pentecost and surrender it there.
There was the call on Jacob. There's a little bit of Jacob inside of all of us. A little bit of manipulation and a little bit of positioning. I hear the call of Pentecost to every Jacob here tonight. Oh God, if in this meeting, all of us with our Jacob spirits could stand up and say, "This week, I'm going to bring Saul, and I'm going to bring Jacob, and I'm going to put them down at the cross, and I'm going to let Pentecost sweep over." See, it's surprising, but many people do believe that good things happen to people who manipulate and position. Hoop-diggle. Now, I know for a time, there are people that can make certain kinds of gains through human manipulation and pulling strings and political, isn't political, that. But I want you to know, when it's all said and done, it's what you are on the inside that will determine your success or failure. And if God be for you, who can be against you? Go ahead and clap your hands to the Lord.
Look, God loved Jacob for his passion, his compassion. He loved him for his enthusiasm and for his commitment. But ultimately, God had to call him to a Pentecost of sorts and strike him in the flesh until he limped away saying, "And I am nothing without Jehovah in my life." And God changed his name to Israel. Now, you know what I believe? If we Pentecostals could bring the Saul part of us and could bring the Jacob part of us, we could walk away brand new in Jesus Christ.
There was another man, his name was Abram, and God changed his name to Abraham. Let me suggest to you that there is an Abraham and Abram in all of us. That's the mats, that material part of us, that part of us that says, "I'm connected to this family or that family." Did you know Abram slept on beds of ivory? He was an inheritor of great wealth. And God spoke to him one day and said, "We're going to leave here. We're going to walk away from here. And we're going to cross that river, and we're going to start building altars and marching off the map places you can't see. And we're going to do things that you've not imagined. And you're going to leave behind your kindred and your relatives and your connections and your beds of ivory and your cars and everything you depend on. We're going to leave beside the, leave behind the bank accounts and all the materialism." Now, if we could bring that part of Pentecost to Pentecost, we could bring the Abram part. And God says, "All right, now apostolic, so I'm going to change your name to Abraham, and you shall walk forth and forevermore by faith. And we're going to go beyond what we can afford."
Persian, when that councilman came out and said to me, he said, he said, "We want you to have this hundred thousand dollar, 100,000 square feet building for Indiana Bible College." I just shook my head. I said, "I don't know. They're talking millions of dollars here." He said, "I want you to go see a man." And I remember sitting down with that man, seven o'clock early in the morning, and Dr. Davis touched my hand. And he said, in the first 15 seconds of our meeting together, he said, "I am in financial trouble. Make me an offer." And we ended up, after a little negotiation, buying that 100,000 square feet building right off of Interstate 65, beautiful building, for $700,000. Seven dollars a square foot. And the Lord has provided miraculously every step of the way. And you know what? Let me tell you this: what you have, what all of us have to do, I think, is move past where we can see and say, "All right, by faith." Now, there's an Abram part of me that has to be brought to Pentecost. But that's the joy. That's what Pentecost is all about.
And then there is another man whose name God changed. His name was Simon. Maybe this is the most dominant part of me, because Simon was the carnal man. And that's the hard man to bring to the foot of the cross, isn't he? The macho, the tough part, the part that wants to be so strong and ends and so tough, the part that wants to be so stoic, the part that wants to be so manly, the part that never wants to cry or never wants to yield, it never wants to say, "I'm sorry." The part that's always concerned about peer pressure, the part of me that warms by the fire about fear, the carnal part of me. The beauty of Pentecost was Peter. Simon brought that part of himself and surrendered it and became the rock, the Peter, the revolutionary preacher that was part of turning the world upside down. Now, I believe until we Pentecostals bring the Simon part of us and surrender it to Pentecost. You say, "I don't understand about this Pentecostal rave." I will understand this: it was just people. Simple people. People in this part of the country, in Mississippi, where some of my people grew up in southern Tennessee. But they were, and this is no, I'm not against intelligence, don't misunderstand. I'm just saying they were simple people, poor people, but they yielded themselves to the power of Pentecost, and they impacted the nation, and their lives, and their family.
I was preaching a revival in West Virginia, Virginia, many years ago, when I first started evangelizing. And it was an old man that we were staying with, lay people, rather McDavid, woke me up early in the morning. He said, "I want to show you something." It was about 5:30. We walked into the misty morning up in the Appalachian Mountains. And he, we climbed a little trail, and we got way up there, and he spread his hand like this, and he said, "Paul Mooney, he said, "There's 50 acres up here on top of this ridge, and there's an access road back on the other side of this mountain." And he said, "I want you to have this. I'm going to give you this 50 acres. I want this to be yours. And I want you to come here whenever you want to, any time in your life, you can come, and you can live on this mountain, and you can build your little cabin up there." He had a lumber mill, and he said, "I'll cut the lumber for you." You know, he had teams of horses, and he said, "We'll take him, we'll pull the lumber up here, and you can just take your time." And I said, "Oh, Brother McDavid, I couldn't do that. We were taught in those days, you know, you didn't do anything like that. And I couldn't do that here. Just, that's nice, I'm flattered, but I can't do anything like that." He was so sad, he almost cried. Came back, and he, he liked to call Sister, we like to call her Mickey. Said, "Mickey, I tried to give Brother Mooney that land up there, but he wouldn't take it." He was so hurt. Past 25 years, I've grieved over that. I'm a little different point of view now. Oh God, oh God. Mickey and I go down the road sometimes, and I say, "Honey, why didn't we take that 50 acres up there? Do you know what that might be worth?" We fantasized all kinds of things up there. Would that be nice to have a retreat up there? Twenty-five, thirty, almost thirty years ago now. I don't have any mountaintop anywhere. My dad rented all his life. When he died, he only had about, just a few old books, and kids fought over those. Now, I only got about three of those. There were nine of us, and there weren't too many to go around. So I missed it. And you know what? I think, I think if we don't wake up, if we don't quit snoring on the bench, down the bench, and if we don't look around, God's trying to give you a mountaintop. And you think the only way I can ever get there, the only way my ministry can ever be blessed, the only way I can ever accomplish that, accomplish that is somehow to have talent enough, for energy enough. Oh no, no. What God's calling to you is to take the Saul part of you and put it on the altar. He's calling to the Simon part of you and saying, "You bring that part of you, that carnal part of you, to Pentecost. You bring that in that trained mind to Pentecost." That's hard to do because we want to think that somehow we're going to get intelligent enough or smart enough to impress people. Come on, wake up. That has never impressed people and never will. It's Pentecost that draws people. It's the Spirit that causes people to come alive. Bring that Abram part of you, that materialistic part of you, that ivory bed, shove it out there. Have a yard sale and say, "I must be touched by the Spirit of Jesus." Bring it all. Bring the Jacob part of you. Bring that Jacob part of you and say, "God, would You change my nature and change my name to Israel, because I'm tired of playing the political game, and I'm tired of manipulating, and I'm tired of working behind people's backs. I'm just going to yield it all to You."
I conclude with this. There was a young lad in Michigan or in Indiana, rather, that died this past year, 1990, of AIDS. He was recently voted by the Indiana State Legislature as the Man of the Year in Indiana, Ryan White. Ryan White was a good kid. As a matter of fact, his family lived right next door to your family, a little town called Windfall, Indiana. Ryan died of AIDS. Remember the night that Ryan died? You heard his story. It has been well-publicized. I'm sure you've seen his name and picture on covers of major magazines everywhere. Courageous little kid. But the night he died, the next night, rather, a doctor came by Calvary Tabernacle, walked in. Just happened to be there. Just came out that way. There were other people around, and he was crying. He had visited our church a couple of times, and he was crying. And he said, "You know, the tragic thing about Ryan's death is that it was a nitrogenic disease." I looked at him funny. I said, "What?" He said, "It was a nitrogenic disease. It was a disease, and he got in the hospital." See, when he came to the hospital, he wasn't all that sick. And the doctor began to just gush out this horrible story. He said, "As a matter of fact, in that particular hospital," and I'll leave it unnamed, "there were four people that got AIDS from infected blood. And all he said, 'We killed him in the hospital.'" We had prayer together, and he left. But I told you, I could never get that out of my mind. A nitrogenic disease. Now, that's what happens many times when we bring folks into a Pentecostal atmosphere and stop being Pentecostal. We run the risk of infecting people and causing people to pick up things in the church that they didn't even have when they were in the world. Did you know people can become more the child of hell after they tasted this thing, if they're not careful? And there are many people in the church today that it was after they got in the church that they picked up sarcasm and cynicism and bitterness and hatefulness. They got that in the church. They got ugly in the church. When they were in the world, they were just sinners. But they came in the church, and they picked up all kinds of diseases, and it became worse. Now, that can happen to you.
Bow your head with me right now. The Spirit of the Lord calls us. Whatever you are on the inside is what really matters. There's a part of all of us that's got to be brought to Pentecost, brought to the anointing, brought to the purging, and brought to the cleansing. All precious is that flow. Would you right now and just pray with me in Jesus' name? God, cleanse me from the top of my head to the sole of my feet. Help me to bring the Saul part of me, now, Jacob part of me, and Abram part of me, and the Simon part of me, and place it at the foot of the cross. I ask the Sadducees. Thank you, Bessie. Oh.