Transcription
See [music and singing] the king. No more crying. We are [music and singing] going to see the king. Hallelu. Hallelu. [music] We're going to see [singing] the king. No more dying. Oh, [music] no more dying there. We are [singing] going to see the king. [music] No more [singing] dying. We are going to see the king. Oh, no [music and singing] more dying. We are going to see the king. [music] Hallelu. Hallelujah. [music] We're going to see the [singing] king. Yes. Hallelujah. [music] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God. I did forget the announcements and I need to make these. [music] Amen. Praise God. Uh you may be seated for a second.
So, Friday, December the 5th is our Christmas banquet. Please see Linda or [music] Marcy for tickets. and all the tickets need to be sold in advance. The following day, December 6th, there's Christmas corral practice. [music] Uh the praise team will meet at 12:00 p.m. on that. It's a Saturday and 100 p.m. for the corral. And please be listening to your [music] songs. If you have any questions, see Chris. Amen. Y'all with me? That was kind of weak, but all right. Here we go. Praise God.
All right. Then Sunday, December the 2 uh 1st at 6:30 will be our Christmas program. [music] And there are invitations at the front desk. Uh if you wish to mail your [music] friends or family, see Dana James for any questions with that. Amen. [music] And then this coming week, we will have uh no prayer meetings, no service Wednesday. Praise God. But then, [music] sorry, December the 2nd at 7 p.m. um we're going to have family prayer here [music] and there'll be refreshments served following the prayer and you don't want to miss that. If you need any help with these announcements, um [music] you can see them in the bulletin. God bless you. Would you stand again now for Pastor Clark as he comes? Amen. Would you give Pastor Clark a hand? Hallelujah. Nothing like the presence of the Lord. We appreciate his intervention here today. It's always in order to [music] yield to the spirit of the Lord when he steps in [music] and touches us as he has today in such a beautiful way. We're glad to be in the house of the Lord with you. It's always [music] a privilege to be able to preach in this pull pit. We're humbled by the opportunity that's given. I never walk [music] in this sanctuary, but what I am not made aware of how grateful we all need to be to have a place like this to worship [music] and people like you to worship with. Amen. Why don't you just go ahead and look at that person next to you and [music] shock them and smile at them? Just smile at them and say, "Hey, I'm glad I'm in the house of the Lord with you today."
Luke chapter 15 verse number 17. And I will direct your attention to [music] one passage of scripture that is so familiar to us. [music] We have approached this from many many different angles and in many [music] different services, but never one just like this one. Luke 15:17 and 18. And when he came to himself, he said, "How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and despair, and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to my father." I will arise and go to my father. Mark 7, Jesus declares, "A good life comes from a good heart, and a [music] bad life comes from a bad heart." Aren't you glad that there is such a place [music] as home? Look at somebody and say, "There's just no place like home." You may be seated. Make yourself at home is a comfortable statement that's made many times as we go to visit one another. The questions asked many times as we have traveled. Where are you from? It's obvious that you're from the south, but where are you from? Where is home? We've spoken and we have talked about heading home. We've got home many times and sat in the driveway and said, "Home at last. We made it." I've asked the question of individuals several times. How long has it been since you've been home? That old home place, Groves, Texas on Harrison Street. That place in Port Author where we spent a lot of our life. my wife's home place inviter. We speak of a home church. We speak many times of a yearning in the hearts of individuals to go home. Years ago, had you stood on a street corner and watched a funeral procession, you would have been extremely impressed. You would have seen standing there with his head bowed and his hat removed with tears in his eyes the president of the United States of America. Around him would have been the cabinet, the officers, the members of Congress, dignities from Berlin, London, Tokyo, Washington DC. tremendous crowd of important people that were gathered there watching a casket draped in old glory as it went down the road in a funeral possession. It seemed like it was a funeral fitting for a president. Who was this person? Why was he so honored? It doesn't appear that he ever held an elected office. We don't know that he was wealthy when we call his name. Possibly very few of us may even recognize it. He got into government work and he ended up overseas in Tripoli and there he died. But this man was so loved and revered by the people of this country and by people all over the world that they disentered his body from Tripoli and brought him back to the United States and gave him this magnificent funeral. His name was John Howard Payne. Probably don't recognize it. Probably didn't ring a bell. I didn't think that it would. So what what is he known for? What is so important that he was honored and revered at his death? What was it that he did? What did he write? What did he say? One simple line that resonates in all of our hearts. Mid pleasures and palaces though oft roam. Be it ever so humble. There's just no place like home. And for that one phrase, they honor John Howard Payne. That statement is so true in more than one way. There just no place like home. There's no place like walking into your home. There's no peace that you find like standing in your home. The dearest place on earth should be our home. The nearest place to heaven should be our home. So many things could be said concerning that song. I could go down through all of the lyrics. We could talk about them. But let me just direct your attention back to this setting in scripture. A young man has found himself in some dire straits and circumstances. He recognizes that he does not belong there. He understands that he belongs somewhere else. And so it is with every heart and every life that lives and sets under the sound of my voice today. There's something in each of us that responds to God. We understand that our home is not in a far country. We recognize that it is not away from home. There's something in every individual that longs for home because we all understand there's just no place like home. He was in a position and a place that the enemy had directed him to go to, but he was not at home there because he understood that that was not home to him. We sang an old song years ago growing up softly and tenderly. Jesus is calling. Calling, "Oh sinner, come home." Why would they write a song like that? Because home is a safe place. I wish I had the words today to say and to express to you how much the Lord wants individuals to come home. How much he wants you to come home just as you are. Not after you do certain things, not after you make certain amendments, not after you change this or change that. But God stands with hands extended to forgive, to plot out, to change, to give you gladness, to give you peace. I recently watched during a service in this church. I watched as the spirit of God tugged at hearts and I watched as God ministered to men and women. I watched as something flirted across their faces. I saw people that wanted to come home. I saw individuals that once were involved in this church, possibly grew up as young people in this church, may have been a part of the corral or the choir, possibly taught a Sunday school class or a youth class or was involved in some other aspect of ministry here. and the struggle that they had to hold back tears because there was something about the spirit of God and being home that pulled at them. The struggle not to jump to their feet and run to an altar. The struggle not to throw their hands in the air and surrender to God with a heart that's thudding with conviction. That voice that speaks, that voice that calls, that voice that woos, that voice that shows its considerable love and consideration for mankind, come home. You know what you need to do. You know what you need to do. The call to come home in that service was tremendous. It was great. I remembered this morning a story that I read where a young man went to see a doctor. The doctor said, "You're not from here, are you, sir?" He said, "No, sir, I'm not." And it was with deep sadness and a sense of regret and tone to his voice. And the doctor asked him, said, "Where are you from?" There was a long drawn out sigh. He said, "I'm from a place over 300 miles away. How long has it been, son, since you left home?" He said, "Sir, I've been gone for many, many months. I've been away from home a long time. I've traveled all over the United States and I've had a mighty rough go of it. And I I'm not happy. I I'm sick. I I stay depressed. There's something not right with me. I I'm sick. Can you help me?" And the doctor looked at him and said, "Son, I can't help you, but you've got to come to the understanding that there's just no place in this world like home, is it?" And he said, "Sir, you're right. I wish I was there right now, but I'm in no condition to go." And the doctor said, "It's not too late to try." The young man said, "I I will try, doctor, and by the way, the name that I gave you is not my real name either. My name is." and he left that doctor's office and that doctor had his name and the address of his parents. He walked out of there with that words, those words echoing in his heart and in his spirit that came from that doctor. There's just no place like home. The doctor wrote a colleague and that boy's hometown and he asked him said, "Please reach out to this young man's parents and have those parents reach out to me and leave a letter with me and I will see to it that he gets that letter." Three days later, a letter arrived. He took it to the boy and the boy tore it open and as he read the words, he began to cry. He said, "It's from my father and they want me to come home. Can I say something this morning that I feel with all of my heart, deep down in my spirit? There's nobody in this world that wants you to come home more than Jesus Christ does. And there's nobody in this world that loves you and wants you to come home more than this great church does. Sometimes we act like we've got to get our ducks all in a row and we've got to do this and we've got to do that. But in reality, all it takes is one person surrendering themselves and saying, "I'm not happy where I'm at. I'm not happy living the way I'm living. I'm not happy facing what I'm facing. I don't have anybody helping me. I just want to go home because there is absolutely no place in this world. You can go anywhere you want to go in this world. You can get involved in whatever you may want to get involved in. You can immerse yourself in every sin the world has to offer. You can pick up every habit and attain every vice that there is. But down in your heart, if you've ever known the sweet touch of God's precious Holy Ghost, you will never fit in this world BECAUSE YOU DON'T BELONG in this world. You belong at home. YOU BELONG [screaming] at home. YOU BELONG AT home because there's just no place like home. He said, "I can't go home like I am." He said, "Think about your mother, son. Think about your dad going to that train station looking for you. I'm going to give you the money to buy the ticket to go home. I know that you're hard up and you don't have it, but they want you to come home. They want you to come home just like you are. They just want you to come home. Can I speak to a church this morning in the Holy Ghost and tell you it doesn't matter what condition they walk back through those doors in, we better open our arms and say, "You're home and we're glad you're home." We better let them understand that you're the most important thing. If they never get through singing a song, if we have to stop preliminaries to pray them through. If we have to stop and have an ALTAR SERVICE. THAT'S WHAT APOSTOLIC CHURCH is really all about. BECAUSE WHEN PEOPLE COME HOME, THEY NEED TO KNOW that they're loved by the family. He was born in 1917, received the Holy Ghost as a teenage boy, Starks, Louisiana. He backslid and he got away from God. 1943 went off to war. And over the next several years, he would find himself imshed and involved in some rough bad things. He saw so many bad things. He told me out of his own mouth how many times God had spared him. And how many times he promised God that God, if you'll keep your hand on me, there's something drawing me. Even in a distant land, even a long ways from home, even a long ways across that water, he felt the drawing of God's spirit to get back home. to get back home to that little church in Starks, Louisiana, to find an altar somewhere and pray. And he made God some promises. Over and over, he said, as God spared him, if you'll just let me get back home, God, and God would spare him. If you'll just let me get back home, God, I'LL SERVE YOU. AND GOD spared him. But he didn't keep his word to God. And yet after coming home and not serving God as a 28-year-old man, deeply scarred by the war, crawled off in a bottle and tried to drown his nightmares, drink became a big part of his life. 1947, their first son was born. 18 months later, twins were born. And for the next several years, he would wrestle with promises that he had made. God. But one night, that man walked into a Pentecostal church. Told me out of his own mouth, for the first time in my life, I felt like I had come home. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had found what I was looking for. Hear me. That was before he walked to the altar. Hear me. That was before the altar call was given. Hear me. That was before the preaching of the word. Hear me. That was before anything happened in an altar to him. HE RECOGNIZED I HAVE COME HOME. BECAUSE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME. The altar call was given. He stumbled out of that pew down to that altar and that revival, God filled him with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And for the first time in years, he felt like that he was home. He had peace. That man was my daddy, Jackson Andrew Clark. with all of his bad habits, with all of the thoughts of confusion in his mind, with so many things that was out of kilter and his life being upside down. A man that was haunted and a man that struggled with nightmares and he would wake up with a 1911 45 in his hand, crawling across the floor and whimpering and crying and moaning, looking for something. Mom would grab him and hug him, say, "Jack, come on back to bed, baby." He'd sit on the side of the bed and he'd say, "Will I ever find peace in MY HEART? WILL I EVER have a night that I can sleep all the WAY THROUGH? WILL THE NIGHTMARES ever stop?" Let me tell you where the nightmares stopped. The nightmares stopped IN A PENTECOSTAL CHURCH. THE NIGHTMARES STOPPED WHEN HE GOT BACK HOME. THE NIGHTMARE CEASED AND PEACE CAME TO OUR HOME BECAUSE MY parents stand with me today. I have a simple invitation. That same God that set my daddy free is in this building to set someone else free. You say, "You don't know what I'm struggling with." I don't have to know. He knows. And I come this morning to tell somebody, you have come home. You're in the place where God wants you to be. You're in the place that God has ordained for you to be on this Sunday morning and sent me to this pull pit with a simple message. There's no place like home. You can walk out of this church and try whatever you want to try, but it's not going to satisfy because you have been home and you've experienced something in home THAT YOU CAN'T FIND ANYWHERE ELSE. CAN I tell somebody under the sound of my voice? It's time to come home. It's just time to come home. When I get it all together, I'll come home. She longed to leave her poor Brazilian neighborhood. Christina wanted to see the world. And she was discontented with her status in life, having only a pallet on the floor, a wash basin, simple wood burning stove. And she dreamed of a better life in the city. And [music] one morning while her mother slept, she slipped away, breaking her mother's heart. Her mother, knowing what life on the streets would be like for a young, attractive girl, hurriedly packed a bag to go find her daughter. [music] She stopped at a particular place and she spent all she could on pictures. pictures of herself. She stuffed those pictures in her purse and she went after her daughter. Yes, she walked into bars and hotels and nightclubs and any place where she might find her daughter. She was not welcomed in many of them and she felt very uncomfortable in some of them. But she was trying to find her daughter. She was trying to find someone that meant so much to her. Every place she went, she left a picture. And on the back of each one, she wrote a note. She took tape and she taped those pictures to mirrors. Soon the money and the pictures all ran out and Maria had to return home. She went back home sad. She was frustrated, but she didn't realize what her effort was going to mean. A young Christina, her daughter, [music] descended a hotel stairs one morning. Her young face was tired. Her eyes spoke of disappointment and pain [music] and fear. Laughter was no longer a part [music] of her life. Her dream had become a nightmare. She looked in a mirror in the lobby of that hotel and she noticed a familiar face, the face of her [music] mother. She removed that small photograph and on the back were these words that she had written on each one of them. Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home. I remember a night that I walked into [music] a church, a church much like this church with a spirit identical to [music] this church. I didn't go there to receive the Holy Ghost, but I felt something drawing me as George Benedict preached. I felt something drawing me as Brother Rogers led the songs. I felt something drawing me as a quartet sang. I felt something pulling at my spirit. And I wrestled with it and I fought against it. But before I walked out of that service that night, God had arrested my heart. God had turned my life around. God had filled Dennis Clark with a baptism of the Holy Ghost. Can I tell you, I'd been a lot of places. I'd done a lot of things that I'm not proud of. But when I walked in that church, I knew that I had come home. I recognized that it was home like no other place I had ever been. Can I tell somebody under the sound of my voice, why don't you just step out from where you are and make your mind up, I'm going to come home. I'm going to get back to God. Help me this morning, church. I'm going to get back to where I once was in God. I'm going to pray until I receive what I need in God. Would you pray with me this morning, church? There is no place like home. You can go anywhere you want to go. You can do anything you want to do. You can be a part of whatever you want to be a part of. YOU CAN GET INVOLVED IN WHATEVER YOU WANT to get involved in. [singing and music] But it'll never satisfy [music] because there's no place no place like home. I open these altars this morning and I invite people. [music] You need to step out in that aisle and walk down that aisle to this altar and say, "God, I'm coming [music] home. [singing] I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. I don't know what's going to take place [music] in the morning. I don't know what to expect tomorrow, church. I don't need you looking. I need you praying. I don't [music] know what's going to There's souls hanging in the balance here this morning. There are people that are trying to make a decision this morning. There are individuals in this house that need to understand that this is home. That God in receiving the Holy Ghost is home. It's a special place [music] called home. And there is no place like home. There's no place like the [music] presence of God. There's no place like being at peace with God. There's no place like home. As they sing, I invite you to [music] come. I invite you Step out from where you are [music] and say, "God, I've waited long enough. [music] [singing] I'm coming home. Jesus [music] is I've been everywhere, but I'm unhappy. [music] I've experienced so much, but I'm still empty. I've [music] tried so many things, but it hasn't satisfied me. Why don't you come home [music] this morning? [singing] Why don't you come home? Why don't you come home? [music] Come home, backslider. Come home, lost son, lost daughter, [music] come home this morning. Just step out of that aisle and say, "I'm going to pray. [music] I'm going to kneel in that altar. I'm going to ask God to restore me to [music] my rightful position. I'm going to ask God to change where I stand in life. I'm going to ask God to let the joy of the help somebody help me this morning. I'm going to ask God to restore unto me the things that the enemy has taken from me. [music] I'm going to ask God to fill me with his precious spirit. If you're here today without the baptism of the Holy Ghost, you need to come home this morning. [music] If you're here without the touch of God in your life, you need to come home this morning. [music] If you're here and you've tried everything else, I invite you to come and try Jesus. Come on, ladies. Help this precious darling pray. I reach out to somebody else in this service. I reach out to somebody else in this place today. [music] Somebody that needs to get up from where you are and say, "I'm going to take an advantage of what God [music] has offered me today. I'm going to give take advantage of what God has provided for me today. I'm going to come home. [singing] Come home. Come home. Come home. [singing and music] Come home. Oh, please come home. [music] The family wants you at home. The Lord wants you at home. Oh Jesus, touch us. [music] Oh Jesus, touch us. Jesus. [music and singing] Oh, would you hear me one more time this morning? Come home. [music and singing] Step out from where you are and say, "I'm going to go pray. [music] I'm going to go get what I need in God. I'm not going to wait one more moment. [music] I'm not going to wait one more day. I'm not going to wait one more service. I'm not going to wait for another [music] season or time. We've been we've not been promised tomorrow. You don't even know that [music] you'll make it home from this service today. You need to understand this morning, my friend, that you need to come home this morning. You need to come home today. [music] [singing] Would you come home? Would you come home? [music] Would you come home? There's no place. [music] No place. [singing] No place like home. [music] Come home. [singing] [music] [singing] No place. No place like home. [music] [singing] No place. God, I just want to come home. I just want to come home, Lord. [music] I just want to come home. I want that peace. I want that joy. I want that satisfaction. I [music] want your touch, God, in my life. I want your hand upon my life, God. I want your spirit, God, to fill my life. Come on home, backslider. [music] Come on home, sinner friend. [singing] Come on home, son or daughter. Come on home. Oh, brother Clark, just let us go. No, God won't let me let you go. There's an urgency that I feel in my spirit today. There's a seriousness about decisions that are being made right now in this service. [music] Whatever you do, don't walk away. Whatever you do, don't resist the spirit of God. Come on. Come on. [singing and music] Oh s the [music] softly and tenderly Jesus [music and singing] is calling calling [singing and music] for you and [music and singing] for See all the [singing] portals [music] he's waiting and