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[Music] foreign. You are all I need. Everything my heart could hope for. We are the glory of the Lord. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] We are not the glory of the Lord. Cause we know they're so heart. Much hope for the glory of the Lord. [Music] [Applause] How are you? [Applause] [Music] [Music] Say. [Music] Songs. How many feel that way tonight? He's all that we need. Hallelujah. He's our hope. He's our purpose. Amen. In him we live and move and have our being. How many is thankful for His presence in this house? Can we just magnify Him for a moment tonight? Hallelujah. I was glad when they said unto me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord." No place I'd rather be than to be in His presence, to feel His touch, to know He is able to meet every need that's represented in His house. How many knows He's concerned about our needs tonight? And He cares. And He's able to supply every need. Somebody say, "Every need." You may be seated tonight. I want to say how honored and privileged we are to have each and every one of our visitors with us tonight. And we want to let you know that you're not here by accident, but you're here with a purpose. God has a purpose for your life. And He's able to take whatever is wrong in your life and make it right. How many know that? Amen. As I was praying tonight, one touch, one touch from Him, or one word spoken from Him. How many knows that everything can change in just one second? Amen. He can do more in one second than we can do in a lifetime. How many know that? And all we have to do, somebody say, "All we have to do," is ask. That's where the power of faith begins to be activated in our life when we ask. How many knows that He will answer that when we ask? Let's give the Lord another good hand clap, a praise tonight. And while it try to come and get ready to sing. [Music] Somewhere. [Music] Is where the tree of life is blooming. There. [Music] Is forever. Just. [Music] [Music] As we sing of His grace and glory, where the saints of God will be. That sounds like home to me. [Music] A crystal river's flowing by the tree of life. And no pain, no more disappointments there will hurt us. Oh, for Jesus Christ Himself. [Music] With the story. As we sing this grace and glory, where the saints of God will be. That sounds like home to me. Well, they say there's matches there inside that city. [Music] A crystal river's flowing by the tree of life. No more disappointment there will hurt us. Jesus Christ Himself. He's gonna be. [Music] [Music] As we sing of His grace and glory, where the saints of God will be. That sounds like home. [Music] [Music] Tears. [Music] As we sing of His grace and glory, where the saints of God will be. That sounds like home to me. Where the saints. [Music] [Music] Oh, let's worship Him tonight. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, come on, let's love Him together tonight. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, I want to see Him and look upon His face. I don't know about you. The more I see of this world, the more homesick I become. Amen. I'm ready to get out of here. Hallelujah. Something about the cry of the saints. Even come so quickly. Come quickly and get us out of here. How many knows the day is soon approaching? And the most important thing for each and every one of us tonight is to be ready. There's no greater peace in knowing that you're ready to meet your Maker. That's the greatest peace you can have in your life is knowing that if He was to come right now, that you would be ready. Hallelujah. How many is that is that your desire? Lord, I want to be ready. I want to be ready. Come on. He ain't going to give us no, no heads up. He's going. The scripture said He's going to come like a thief in the night. Come on. I want to be ready. Amen. While we all stand them and give you, give you an opportunity to give to the kingdom of God. Harmony's thankful for all the blessings of God that we have. Each and every one of us. How many know that you're, you're wonderfully blessed tonight? Come on. We're each and every one of us are blessed abundantly. Amen. I found out you cannot give God. Amen. You cannot give God. Amen. So we're going to give you this opportunity. Lord, we ask You to bless the gift and the giver. Multiply it for Thy kingdom, Lord. Let this offering go, Lord God, to reach different ones, Lord God, to use it as an instrument of Your glory and Your praise. We'll give You praise. Come cheerfully given to the Lord tonight. [Music] Sing louder. Can you hear the sound of heaven? [Music] [Applause] [Music] Let this place. [Music] Break our walls down. [Music] You're the. [Music] [Music] Here. [Music] Break out. [Music] Having break down. [Music] Shaking up the earth and. [Music] Is. [Music] Oh, can we love Him? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You for that beautiful song tonight. Amen. While you remain standing tonight, I'll tell you why this last song, and man, that was just absolutely awesome. Thank God for our roots and our foundation. Everything that we are built upon, and that doctrine, that's what keeps us rooted. Amen. That's our root. That's our foundation. Amen. There's a lot of people that want to just throw things up together without building a good foundation. And we see the havoc that is wreaked whenever a high wind or an earthquake takes place when people don't take the necessary precautions of really working with the foundation first. [Music] I'm thankful tonight for your pastor. How many is thankful for that word that we've been taught? Amen. Somebody say, "Preach to me, Pastor." Thank you, brother. Done. God bless you. Why don't you be seated? So thankful to be in the house of the Lord on, uh, Tuesday night. Aren't you thankful to be in the house of God on Tuesday night? I want to, I want to be faithful. I want to be found faithful. And I don't know of anything that's more important in living for God than faithfulness. I'm glad God filled me with the Holy Ghost, but He did that. I'm glad I was redeemed, but He did that. I'm glad God found me. I didn't find God. God found me. And I'm thankful for all the things that God has done for me. But I'm going to tell you this one thing I know, and that's that the thing that I give back to God is my faithfulness. My faithfulness. And the greatest way I know to show Him my faithfulness is being in the house of God when it's time to be in the house of God. I don't need to be found somewhere else. Oh, hallelujah. I said, I don't need to be somewhere else when it's time to be in God's house. I want to be found in God's house. I'm just, I'm telling you, it's a farce to believe that I can be unfaithful to church and then get to judgment and God say, "Welcome, my good and faithful servant," and I've been missing church. It ain't happening, folks. If He's gonna say, "Welcome, my good and faithful servant," you know how He's gonna say that? Because I've been faithful. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I want to preach to you for a few minutes. And I want you to remain seated because when we read the scripture, I usually ask you to stand, but the very nature of the way I want to read this scripture tonight, I want you to remain seated. Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 3. Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 3 for your consideration tonight. Isaiah 45 and 3. And we're going to skip around some in this chapter, and that's why I want you to remain seated. "And I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places." Somebody said, "Dark and hidden secret places." "That thou mayest know that I am the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God, and am the God of Israel." So He says, "I'm going to give you treasures out of darkness, hidden riches from secret places." So it's dark, it's hidden, and it's secret. Verse 7. Verse 7. "I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things." Wow. Verse 9. We're going to read verse 9 and 10. "Woe unto him that striveth with his maker. Let the partial strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say unto him that fashioneth it, 'Why fashionest thou me?' or 'Thy work he hath no hands?'" Verse 10. "Woe unto him that saith unto his father, 'What begettest thou?' or to the woman, 'What hast thou brought forth?'" The scripture that I read in your hearing says this: I'm the Lord of the heavens, and I reserve the right to create what I want to create, how I want to create it. And the created does not have the authority to question the creator. There's just gonna, there's just gonna be some things that happen in your life, and I reserve the right to send into your life what I want to send into your life, and you don't have the right to question me on it. Oh, hallelujah. I want to preach to you for the next few minutes from this subject: God is Ambidextrous. God is Ambidextrous. I preached this several years ago, and I felt today to preach it again. God is Ambidextrous. Ambidextrous simply means the ability to use both hands equally well. Most of us are either left-handed or we're right-handed. If you're right-handed, the greatest chance is that much of what you do with your right hand cannot be done with your left hand. And if you're left-handed, your weakness is your right hand. But God uses both hands with equal depth and ability. He's just as good with His left hand as He is with His right hand. He has as much blessing that comes from His left hand as comes from His right hand. God is ambidextrous. We do not know this because you can search the Bible from cover to cover, 66 books, and the left hand of God is never mentioned one time in all 66 books. It is my opinion and my firm belief that the reason that the left hand of God is never mentioned in all 66 books is simply because you couldn't understand it anyway. What God does with His left hand is so beyond our comprehension that there's no sense in even discussing it. The left hand of God is reserved for the infiniteness of God. Finite man will never comprehend the workings of God's left hand. Therefore, God is silent concerning His left hand. Job, and I looked for it today, and I've got it written down somewhere, and I could not find my notes on it. But Job asked God numerous questions throughout the first 30 chapters of the book of Job. Why, God? Why this? Why that? Why, why have You taken everything? Why are You treating me this way? Why is this going on in my life? And in the first 30 chapters of the book of Job, Job questions and questions and questions God, and God doesn't say a word in reply. And the reason why is because had God answered Job, Job would still just have more questions. Humanity, humanity is like an ant climbing one of the columns on a Roman cathedral. That ant does not stop partway up and say, "Look at the architecture. This is outstanding. Look how intricate the work is." The ant has no ability on his journey up the column to comprehend the complexity of what has been built. There's no sense in even pointing it out to him. To the ant, the column is just a means to an end. And mankind is like that in God's universe. Most of the complexity of God's universe, man has no ability to comprehend. Life is just a means to an end for man. And for the infinite God to try to explain His left hand to man is a waste. It is futility in its beginning. So God, in His wisdom, remains silent. But remember this: because God's silent doesn't mean He's still. Um, you, you missed that. I said, because God's silent doesn't mean He's still. I'm amazed by these scriptures. Psalms 20 and 6. I'm going to give you a sampling. This is not all of them. If I tried to go through all of them, we wouldn't have time tonight. So I just picked a few out that I really liked. But God, over and over and over, talks about His right hand because His right hand represents power and authority and dominion. And we love for God to work with His right hand because when God uses His right hand in our life, we can laugh at the enemy. Israel knew a lot about God's right hand. Every time God subdued Israel's enemy, He did it with His right hand. Every time God brought them out of slavery, He did it with His right hand. Israel was used to God's authority and the use of His right hand in their lives. "Now know that I the Lord saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand." We like that because when God brings us out with His right hand, we can back up and look at the enemy and look at Lucifer and say, "Did you see what God just did?" Psalms 108 and 6. Psalms 108 and 6 says this. Psalms 108 and verse 6. "That thy beloved may be delivered save with thy right hand and answer me." The psalmist knew the hand of God that he wanted to see was that right hand that represents power and authority and victory and God's authority over our enemy in this world. But it almost seems like the psalmist understood some things because in 74, Psalms 74 and 11, it's amazing that he specifies what hand he wants God to use. Psalms 74 and 11. It's almost like the psalmist was experiencing God's left hand and he didn't like it. "Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? Pluck it out of thy bosom." I don't like your left hand. Get that right hand out and use that hand. I'm gonna tell you, none of us like it when God uses the mysterious left hand in our life because God's left hand almost seems dark and evil. That left hand is when is what He uses to lead us through the valley of the shadow of death. That left hand is what He used when all of a sudden everything Job had. God had been. Job had gotten used to God's right hand. He was the wealthiest man on earth. He was bragging about all the cattle and the sheep and giving the praise to the Lord. "The Lord has done all this. I've lived for Him, and look at how God's blessed me." And then all of a sudden, the left hand of God comes into Job's life. And you can almost hear Job saying with the psalmist, "Why withdrawest thou thy right hand? Pluck it out of thy bosom and use that hand in my life. That's the one I like. I like it when I'm on the mountain. I like it when I'm being victorious." [Music] But my question tonight is, can we trust God when He uses His left hand in our world? I want to make a statement right here, and I want to tell you that when you live for God for a little while, here's what you find out. You find out that the greatest blessings that we have in our world does not come from the right hand of God, but it comes from the left hand of God. I'm telling you, the things that we learn and the things that are revealed to us in the dark times. In fact, here's what Isaiah said. Isaiah said that God's greatest treasures are hidden in darkness. The greatest things you get from God, sister Norma Bailey, sister Nona Davidson, some of you others that's lived for God most of your life already. Here's what you find out. And I like to say it like this: When you look at life from youth, all you see are the trials and the mountains, the hills that you got to climb, and the valleys that you got to go through, and the trials that you face. But when you're in your 70s and 80s and you look back at life, let me say it this way: When you look at life from your youth and you look at the things you've got to go through, it looks like you go from trial to trial. But once you've been through them and you've conquered and you've won, and God's brought you out of so many things, and you look back on your life of living for God, it looks like you've went from victory to victory and from faith to faith. It just depends. You just got to live for God a little while. In fact, one of the biggest memories that I have in my life, and it happened right here in this church, in the first building, is one of the dear old saints of God stood up and testified like this. This is what the testimony went like. The testimony said, "You just gotta live for God a little while to realize that when you face a trial, when you face something that you wonder, 'Am I ever gonna get through this? Is this gonna be the thing that destroys me? Is this gonna be the thing that takes me down?' And then you look back and remember after you've lived for God for a few decades, all the things God brought you through, and how many times that you stood and wondered, 'How am I gonna come through this?' And then you decide, 'I'll tell you how I'm gonna come through this great obstacle: the same way God brought me through all of the other ones.'" Oh, my God, have mercy. The same way He brought me through every other dark trial. The same way He brought me through every, uh, oh, my Lord, have mercy. That's how I'm gonna come through this with victory, just like all the other times. Because God, how it's His greatest treasure in darkness. You know, I, I was sitting at the table, the bar. We, I, I didn't realize how much I was gonna appreciate that bar later in my life. And when I say bar, I don't mean bar like you're thinking bar. I mean the bar at my grandmother's house where Mom would sit there and talk about stuff. I wish I would have listened better. I wish I would have comprehended more. But I remember sitting there talking to Uncle Tim Copeland, who was, back then, a worldwide evangelist. And he'd come in. Boy, we'd all go over there to see Uncle Tim. He'd been out preaching. And I remember sitting there, and I don't know what, I don't remember what Brother Tim Copeland brought up to Mom all. But here's how Mom all responded, and I never forgot it. It stood out to me. It's just, you know, how you look back over your life and you remember little snippets. But I remember her saying, "Well, Tim, can you trust God in the valley like you trust Him on the mountain?" She said, "You know, that's where trust is built. Trust isn't built when you can see God working. Trust is built when you wonder if He's even there." Oh, my Lord. That's when you learn to trust Him. When you wonder, "Where are You, God? Have You forgotten where I live? Have You forgotten my address? Have You forgotten my name?" That's when trust is built. Oh, my Lord, have mercy. She said, "That's when your relationship with Him gets the sweetest, when it's so dark that you don't know where to turn, when it's so dark that you wonder where you are, when it's so dark that you can't see the hand of God, but you know, oh, my God, have mercy, but you know that even though you can't see Him, He's still there. Even though you can't hear Him, He's still there." My God. Let me tell you something: because God's silent doesn't mean He's still. He's still working, even when you can't see Him and you can't hear. Oh, my Lord. Our sweetest victories don't come out of the right hand of God. Our sweetest victories come from the left hand of God. When you finally find out that I don't have to be victorious to know I'm in the will of God. In fact, I want to present to you right now the fact that the smoothest road of life is the one that goes to hell. I'm going to say that again because you didn't get it. Lucifer will pave you a road to hell because he's happy you're going there. Man, he ain't gonna show up and put roadblocks in front of you and cause you problems when you're going to hell. He likes where you're headed. He'll pave your road to hell if you'll go and take all your kids and your relatives and your friends, all that with you. He knows if you go to hell, you're going to take a whole host of people with you. He don't mind you going to hell. I'm going to tell you, when the problem's going to start is when you get them smack dab in the middle of God's will. Lucifer is scared to death of you when you're in the will of God because he knows if you're operating in the will of God, you're going to tear his kingdom down. If you're operating in the will of God, he's got problems headed his way. If you're in the middle of the will of God, your children are going to be victorious, gonna start winning your neighbors and your friends and your relatives and your family. So you know what he's gonna do? He's gonna point every arsenal that he has out of hell straight at you and do everything he can to block your path. The fight is owned when you start living for God. Somebody said, "Well, my Lord, what I've had people say, man, I didn't have any." In fact, Alan Grant, Alan Graham, of course, you know, it's all a matter of perspective because before Alan got in the church, he was walking up to walking up and down the streets picking up cigarette butts, people pumped out and trying to smoke what was left. Before he got in church, he was sleeping under bridges and in the woods. He got in church, God gave him a good house to live in and a car to drive and all that. But yet, he said, "I didn't have problems until I started trying to live for God. I didn't have problems until I started coming to church." No, he just didn't start keeping up with it till then. He had a false expectancy, like a lot of people do, that I'm going to get in church and it's going to be guitars, Cadillacs, and hillbilly music. I'm going to get in the church and all of a sudden everything's going to be wonderful. No, your fight just started when you got in the church because the devil don't want you in the church. The devil don't want you. He's going to tell you all kind of things. He's going to tell you, "You don't have to have the Holy Ghost to be saved." He's going to tell you, "You don't have to speak in tongues as evidence that you got the Holy Ghost." He's going to tell you, "It don't take all that." He's going to do everything he can to get you to get you to buy into a bargain counter salvation where you have a form of godliness but don't have the power. Anything that will stop you from having the power and the authority to really declare war on the fortress of the enemy. Because Lucifer has built every stronghold in the world, in your house, and your home, and your children, and your family, and even on your job. And he don't want you to have the power through prayer to start tearing those strongholds down. [Music] And if you're a tongue talker and you're full of the Holy Ghost, his strongholds are in trouble in your world. They are threatened. So he wants you to have a form of religion that denies the power to really set you free. [Music] So if you get full of the Holy Ghost, he's going to declare war on you. You say, "Well, what do I do? What do I do?" I tell you what you do: you be still and see the salvation of the Lord. Just keep living for God. Don't look to the left. Don't look to the right. Just keep marching on. Here's what the Bible says. The Bible says to let the Lord fight your battles for you. He will avenge you. He will be your avenger. Just live for God. A lot of people do what Rebekah did. God promised that Rebekah was going to have children. Isaac's wife was going to have children. And because God prophesied it, she figured it was going to be the smoothest birth on the face of the earth because it was from God. And when she started having labor pains, she said, "Oh, my Lord, I'm having a struggle." This was her very words. "Lord, if this is from You, why am I thus? Or why am I having trouble?" And that's what people all through the church want to say: "If I'm in the will of God, if this is the truth, if I'm in the church, why am I struggling?" Did you really think there was a way that you could live that would no longer be life? The wisest man in the Bible said it this way: "Life is a few days and full of trouble." And living for God doesn't change that. It just gives you somebody's hand to hold. It doesn't mean it's no longer going to be cold. He just gives you a comforter. [Music] I, I know it's a play on words, but get it. It doesn't change the temperature of the world. You just have a comforter now. Pull it up around your chin and thank God for it. And let God fight your battles. It doesn't mean it's never going to be cold anymore. It means that God gives you a comforter to comfort you. Oh, my Lord, have mercy. The Holy Ghost is the comforter. It's going to help you in your infirmities. It's going to walk you out of your trials, not keep you from them. [Music] And God says, "I'm going to create some darkness." There's things that's going to come in your world that you're going to think He's evil. And the psalmist said this. The psalmist said, "Why did You withdraw Your left, Your right hand? That's the one I want back." Can you imagine? Can you imagine the disciples? They're, they're, most of them were were Jewish. They were Israel. They had Israel theology. And you know what they were expecting? They were expecting God to come and set His kingdom up in Jerusalem. They were used to that right hand. They were telling the stories of the Old Testament. "He brought us out of Egypt, and He brought us into Canaan, and no army could stand before us, man. He walked right over our enemies. He brought us out." And that's what He's about to do. He's going to come and set His kingdom up in Jerusalem, and He's going to bring Rome under His feet. We may be serving them now, but it won't be for long. When God sets His kingdom up in Jerusalem, He is going to subdue our enemies again. They were looking for that right hand. And then all of a sudden, He says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up again." You know what He's described? Who He was trying to describe to them. He knew there was no sense in explaining it. He just gave them a riddle. They were about to see the left hand of God. You with me here? The left hand of God was about to come into play, and none of them were going to understand it. In fact, Peter was going to backslide and go back fishing. He was going to be so discouraged. Thomas was going to say, "I, I don't believe unless I see Him with my eyes and touch Him with my own hands. I'm not going to believe it." I'm so discouraged. And the rest of the disciples was going to say, "Peter, if you're backsliding, I guess we'll give up and quit too, because we don't understand and cannot comprehend the left hand of God." There was a darkness that was about to come that it was going to go pitch black at noonday. Y'all with me? Peter draws his sword and says, "They won't crucify You. If they do, it'll be over my dead body." And Jesus has to say, "Get thee behind me, Satan. Can't you trust my left hand? I'm just as good at blessing you with my left hand as I am with my right hand. I am ambidextrous. In fact, the truth of the matter is, the greatest treasures are going to come from my left hand, not from my right hand. Your greatest miracles are going to come from darkness, not from light. Your greatest miracles are gonna come when you think you're being destroyed, not when you're victorious." Oh, my God. Can you trust God when He moves with His left hand? Can you trust God? Can you say, "God is ambidextrous, and He's just as good when He's dark as He is when He's light"? He's just as full of blessing. Can you imagine John? You imagine John the Baptist. He has worked miracles. He has preached the gospel. He's been the forerunner of Christ. Can you imagine how he puffed his chest out when the Lord said, "There's no greater born of a woman than John"? And now all of a sudden, he's put in prison. They're talking about beheading him. And Jesus won't even come see him. He's not just his pastor and his leader and his Messiah, he's his cousin, for crying out loud, his first cousin. He gets so discouraged in the darkness of that prison that he finally calls his disciples together because Jesus and His disciples won't even come visit him. And this is the, this is the same one that taught them and said, "Part of your religion is you're gonna go visit them that's in prison." John's saying, "He won't even practice what he preaches. I'm in here starving to death. He told us to feed the needy, comfort the fatherless, visit those that were in prison." One preacher was preaching, he said, "He said, 'I was naked, and you wouldn't feed me.'" Somebody in the audience said, "I wonder what it takes to get a meal around here." I'm telling you, it's dark. It's, it's dark in John's world, you hear me? It's dark in John's world. They're about to cut his head off. Jesus hasn't said a word. His disciples won't come visit him. And finally, John calls some of his personal disciples, and he is so hurt and he's so upset. He said, "You go ask Him. He's not doing anything He preached us to do." So you just go ask Him, "Is He really the Messiah, or should I..." You know the connotation here? I don't think we get it. He was wanting his life saved. He was wanting, "Now that prison, and what he was saying is, if He's not going to get me out of here, you tell Him I'll look for somebody else too. Is He the Christ, or should I put my confidence in somebody else?" And Jesus sent the word back: "The gospel is being preached. Blind eyes are being opened. Deaf ears are being unstopped. And blessed is he who is not offended in the way I choose to do things. I know you don't understand it, John, but I'm moving right now with my left hand. The greatest miracles that this earth has ever witnessed is about to be performed out of this darkness. And you prophesied it, and you preached it, and you're part of it." [Applause] In, in, in Peter's darkness, he did not realize when he drew that sword that he was seeing the left hand of God. And when he said, "They're not going to take You to that cross," what he did not understand is the greatest treasure this world has ever seen was about to spring from the darkness that Peter did not want the world to go through. He just didn't understand it. Can you trust Him when He brings His left hand into your world? Lift your hands one last time. Come on. Come on. Come on. One last time. Come on. Would you reach out? Somebody. Come to the music, please. Come on. Reach out. Come on. I really need somebody touching heaven right now. Musicians, come. Come on. Come on. Come on. Here's what Paul would say. Paul would say, "Because you're finite, even though you're filled with the Holy Ghost, you're still only going to see as though it were through a glass darkly." There's so much about living for God you're not going to comprehend till you get to glory. Martin Luther, the great reformer's wife was named Catherine. One morning, in the middle of Luther's reformation, you've got to understand what Luther did. He turned the entire Catholic Church against him. His friends, even though they may agree, didn't want to identify with him. It got dark in his world. They were trying to kill him. The Pope wished he could get his hands on him. It was bad. And I'm sure he started out that reformation with great zeal and excitement, but he got bogged down in the middle of it when he felt like he was standing alone. One morning, he got up for breakfast and he went downstairs where his wife had prepared breakfast, and she was already sitting at the breakfast table waiting on him. And when he got down there, she was in a pitch-black dress. [Music] Black stockings, black shoes, black cat, and a black veil over her face. And he said, "What is this? Are you going to a funeral? Did somebody die?" She said, "Yes, God." [Music] He said, "What?" She said, "God died." He said, "What are you talking about? If God died, how do you know it?" She said, "I know it from the way you've been acting and the way you've been talking. It's obvious, the way you've been moping around here and the way you've been responding to this God that you serve, that He's obviously dead." My God, have mercy. It was exactly what Martin Luther needed. It put a fire back in his belly. He said, "God's not dead," and he went back to work with the reformation. And that's the only reason, my God, have mercy, that the gospel began to be spread, and we have a, oh, Lord, do you understand what the reformation did to bring the truth, to help bring the truth out? Bishop Stanley in England. Stand together. Bishop Stanley in England was called to a, a mine. A mine collapsed and 40 miners were trapped and died in that mine collapse in England. Several hundred people gathered at the mouth of the, of the mine to declare that mine the grave site of their loved ones. [Music] They're standing there weeping and moaning. Wives are crying. Kids are trying to dig in the dirt like they think they can dig their dad out. It's a tragic scene. The owner of the mine finally asked Bishop Stanley, "Can you say something to these people? Please say something to help these people." Bishop Stanley said, "We stand at a mystery today." [Music] "This is a great, great mystery in God that we cannot comprehend." Said, "But this is what it reminds me of." He said, "It reminds me of a, of a wide bookmark that my mother embroidered for me." He said, "If I look at the wrong side of that bookmark," he said, "it's just a mess of string. He said, "It's so confusing that no one could understand it." He said, "It looks like an imbecile with no rhyme or reason, just ran string through cloth." He said, "But when I flip it over to the other side, it beautifully says, 'God is love.'" And he said, "I'm just telling you, there's some things in God we're not going to understand till we get to the other side. And when we look back on it, we're going to realize God is love." He said, "Can I trust God to be love without Him showing me the other side?" Lift your hands together right now. Everybody here, reaching out. Come on. Come on. I need somebody to reach out. Come on. I need somebody to help me just a moment. God's trying to do something in this place. If you'll reach out to Him right now. God's trying to speak to somebody in this house. If you'll listen to Him right now. Come on. Can you hear it? Can you hear His voice right now talking to you? Psalms 81 and 16. From our last verse. Psalms 81 and 16. I'm preaching to people all over this building right now, and I'm telling you, your greatest blessing is coming out of your darkest trial. "He should have fed them also with the finest of wheat and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied me." Can you imagine anything drier and harder and more unyielding and more threatening than a rock? Can you imagine anything more destructive? Who in the world gets honey out of a rock? If you don't know, I do. God wants to take this hard place in your world, this unyielding place in this world, your world, this thing that you can't seem to manipulate, you can't. It's so dry, it's so empty, it's so destructive that you wonder, "Am I gonna make it out of this alive?" Here's what Samson said. Samson gave a great riddle. He said, "Out of the strong came forth meat, out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth weakness, weak sweetness." You know what he was saying? The very thing I thought was going to destroy me ended up saving my life. The thing that was so hard ended up bringing sweetness into my world. I'm telling you, your treasure's coming out of darkness. The secret things of God is gonna yield your greatest blessing. I'm telling somebody right here, yes, God knows where you are. Yes, God knows your name. Yes, God still knows your address. Are you listening to me right now? He knows exactly where you are. He knows exactly what you're going through. And I'm telling you right now, you're about to see your greatest blessing come out of this most difficult trial because God's treasures are hidden in the darkness. [Music] Solomon, before I open this altar to anybody, to everybody, I wonder if there's anybody that feels like this was directly to you, and you have enough confidence to come up that hour, your hands raised, saying, "God, I trust You. Will Your left hand? God, I know You're just as good with Your left hand as You are with Your right hand." Come on. Anybody got enough faith to come up that aisle saying, "There's honey coming out of this rock. There's something good coming out of this trial. God, I trust You. I have confidence in You." Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Right now. Right now. Come on, somebody. Come on, somebody. Miracles are going to come out, out of this. Miracles are coming out of this. Miracles are coming. I'm telling you, God is ambidextrous. He don't just use His right hand. He uses His left hand too. And you've got to trust Him when it's His left hand that's moving in your world. Come on, somebody. Come on. Come on. Somebody trust Him right now. Somebody put your confidence in Him right now. [Music] I got to remind somebody one more time what I said earlier. Just because He's silent doesn't mean He's still. He's still working in your world. Just because He's not talking to you doesn't mean He's not working. He's not talking to you because He shut His mouth. He's not talking to you because you couldn't comprehend it. Trust Him. He's still working. Come on. He's still working. Yay. Come on, somebody. You know what? I'm gonna prophesy to somebody right now. If you've got enough faith to receive it, your greatest blessings coming out of this darkness. Your greatest treasure is coming out this time. Can you trust Him? Can you trust Him when He uses His left hand? Can you trust Him when it almost seems like a slap? Can you, oh, my Lord, have mercy, when can you trust Him when it almost seems evil? Can you trust Him to take you by the hand and walk you through the darkness? [Music] It got so dark in Job's world, he didn't realize he was going to come out of it with twice, double everything he'd ever had before. That he appreciated. God's about to double your blessing if you can trust Him with darkness. Come on. God's about to multiply your blessing if you can trust Him when He moves with His left hand. Reach out one more time. I'm done. Come on. Come on. Reach out one more time. I'm done. Somebody. [Music] Troubles, they don't last. [Music] When your heart is broken, lift your hands and say, "Say, I know that I can make it. I know I can stay. No matter what may come." [Music] No matter what may come my way. My life is in Your hand. And in Your tests and Your trials, it seems they'll bring you down. Oh, and all your friends and your loved ones, they're nowhere to be found. Remember, you've got a friend named Jesus. He'll wipe your tears away. And when your heart is [Music] No matter what may come my way. My life, it's in Your hands. I, I can take it with Him. I don't understand. No matter what may come my way. My life is. Come on, reach out. Don't stop. God's working miracles in this house right now. I understand. God's reassuring people in this tabernacle. [Music] No matter. [Music] I want you to entertain the Holy Ghost right now. I don't know what He's gonna do, but He's not quite done. We need to bask in His presence just a moment here. We need to bask in His presence just a moment here. Just bask in the presence of the Lord. Come on. That's it. Just bask in His presence. [Music] God works best when He works in darkness. God works best when He can't even explain it to us. [Music] Holy Ghost. [Music] Come on. That, that's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. Yes, Lord. Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost. [Music] You know what? Somebody may be standing out there right now thinking, "You know, that's wonderful, Brother Copeland, but I really didn't need this message. You know, everything, I understand everything going on in my world. Everything's fine." Well, I'm gonna tell you, there's people all around you. [Music] That they don't know. They feel like they're lost in a dark room. They feel like they're just searching for their way. You know what you ought to do? You ought to reach over, reach in front of you, or whatever, say, "God, reassure them. God, still their faith that they can trust You like never before." [Music] You know, it's all right to say, "God, I, I just absolutely gotta have You, Lord. I need to feel Your hand." [Music] I need to feel Your hand. Seems. [Music] Yes, Lord. You've got a friend named, a friend named Jesus. He'll wipe those tears away. When your heart is broken, lift up your hands and say, "I know, I know." [Music] No matter what may come my way. My life gets in Your hands. [Music] No matter what may come my way, Lord, my life. [Music] [Music] No matter what my. [Music] Oh, my way. [Music] Um. [Music] Oh. [Music] Would you thank God for this service? Come on. Would you lift your hands and thank God for this service? [Music] Come on. Thank Him. Thank Him. Thank You. [Music] Thank Him for His word, His blessing. Thank Him for His faithfulness. His faithfulness in the dark times and in the light times, and in the mountains and in the valleys. [Music] My Lord, my Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I have, I have one, one quick announcement. And, uh, that is that, um, the men have have, uh, talked about going to Men's Conference and then going to see the play Jesus, uh, the next morning at 11 o'clock. And I think that would be a wonderful thing. Uh, Sight and Sound Theaters, one of the greatest things that you could ever experience. But here's the deal. The Sight and Sound Theater is sold out day after day after day after day after day, right on up till the time that the enter going. And it's almost sold out for that Saturday morning at 11:30. So I've never seen anything like that before. I've never seen it. I've been going to Branson all my life. I've never seen the theater sold out like that that far in advance. So with that said, we've got to have a, we got Brother Parker needs a number tonight. [Music] Of who's going. And so if there's not people, if there, if you know some a man that's not here tonight that you think may want to go, you need to text him or contact him. We need a solid number tonight where we can go ahead and establish those tickets. In fact, the seats that are left are so spread out that we'll get to go, but we won't even, you know, many of us won't get, they won't be able to set us all together. You'll be able to sit with someone from the group. There's no individual seats, but there's a lot of two seats, three seats. I mean, it's just, the theater is almost completely full. I think there was about 60 seats left in the theaters, all the entire theater. So if you want to go see Jesus, and you want to, boy, I certainly want to see you if you want to go see the Jesus production in Branson and go to Men's Conference Friday night. Brother Joel Holmes will be preaching Friday night in Harrison, Arkansas. And then the men will see Jesus that following morning at 11:30. It'll get you back home here at home here about 10:30 or about 10, 10:30 Saturday night, plenty of time to get home, get rested up for Sunday service. Uh, please let us know tonight because if you don't, we're gonna miss those. We'll miss out on the production of Jesus. So please, please let us know tonight. And then if you know, if you have a somebody else that goes this church or somebody else you want to bring, you need to text them. And, uh, if your buddy was in there saying he wanted to go and he's not here tonight, you better text him and say, "Man, we need your confirmation. The tickets for Jesus is about."