Transcription
So I I just got to I just got to keep. Y'all help me pray right now. Lord, give me peace on what to say. Just reach out the glory of God of the Holy Ghost in the name of Jesus. The power of your blood, the power of your. In the name of Jesus. My wife. That said, we'll get to pray back by Sunday.
To all the all the pastors that are here tonight, I I want you to know that I I will be preaching Mount Calvary. God blesses every pastor. Pastoring is increasingly one of the hardest things.
This world changes, the ideology of this world changes. There is a spirit that wants to make pastors seem unimportant in your life. There's a spirit that wants to make your pastor feel like a luxury instead of a necessity. Something to be second-guessed, leadership, spiritual leadership, a joke. And the truth of the matter is that that was never God's plan. It was God's plan that the most important leader in your life is not your president, your boss, your school teacher, or whatever. For the most important man in your life.
That doesn't mean that doesn't mean blind leadership, because here's here's here's the litmus test of Paul. He said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." That's right. If you find that I'm not following Christ, then you're not obligated to follow Christ. That's so good. You got an obligation to follow. Good. You know, the thing about it is, a pastor's not perfect.
But this is one thing that I feel safe to. If a pastor makes a mistake, you'll just pray for him to keep your hand. All right. I promise you, there is a God. There is a God in heaven that will straighten him out if you'll just pray and just keep following him. Say, "God, all right, I'm I'm going to trust and follow this man. I'm going to trust you. I don't I don't feel good. I don't like his decision, but it's not my position to say anything."
Wow. But you know, there's a complaint board called the altar. You you were under that. You say, "God, I don't like what my pastor's doing. I don't like what he's saying." But the minute you get together with you, you start you serpent. I'm just tell God takes his hand. You think you do better than I do. Now, the reason there are so many churches full of confusion is because the saints that take the pastor to their own hands still let God.
Man, if you believe in prayer, nothing can change your situation. And so, you know, you say, "What's the difference in these churches? 30 years and they just grow and grow and grow? They they have they must just have an awesome pastor." No, they got a they got a church with an awesome revelation. All right. All right. Because that pastor's probably not a whole lot different than that cross town that just got run off. All right. It's just that one person knows how to pray for their pastor, knows how to rise up. Knows how to change situations. Sometimes, you know, more times than not, more times than not, I'm going to say this in a mess. You know, the older I get, the more I come out.
You know, the truth of it is is most of the time, probably 90% of the time, prayer don't change things. Yeah. Talk about it. Prayer changes the mind. I go to prayer so many times, "God, change things." But before I'm done, I find out what he did. He changed my mind. My God. Just like the Bible says, what we need more than anything. Yes. We need a washing and renewing of the mind and your word for the God of heaven to let us see things the way he says. Go ahead, brother. Well, that's kept me making a lot of mistakes. Say it. Praying has saved me so much embarrassment. Has saved me from being foolish in my life. Just just go into prayer. So good. And man, I went into I I tell you, I walked in up the aisle of my church, the church I pastor, walked up so many times, feeling so justified. If I'm being too transparent here, so many times say, "Kill them, God. You deal with them. You You kill them. Strike them dead." To praying and seeking God, weeping, and I go out, I'm saying, "God, in wrath, remember mercy. Remember that you're a merciful God." I had forgotten about it. But about 20 years ago, I acted like they acted. All right. I made that very mistake. What you live over? I did that to somebody. He is merciful to as you were to me. Yeah. If somebody prayed, you would kill me, and you answered, I wouldn't be here. This church wouldn't have a pastor. My precious wife would have an ugly husband. God save our situation.
Well, I'm going to tell you what we need worse than anything in the world today is to go back to how to offer prayer, right? Learn how to pray. Learn how to put things in God's hands. The internet has taught us how to take it in our own hands. The internet's taught us how.
After service and to watch the big hand on the clock. Make sure it don't go all the way around where it started. So, thank you for that. Stand together. First Kings chapter 6. It's so good to see you back there for many, many years. I'm so honored that you're here. Good to see you back there. And I'm already getting trouble because I'm calling names. I honor every minister that's in this.
First Kings chapter 6 and verse 7. First Kings the 6th chapter and the seventh verse. First Kings chapter 6 and verse 7 says, "And the house when it was in building was built of stone made ready before it was brought, so that there was neither hammer nor axe or any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building." Why don't you be seated? Lift your hands and ask the Holy Ghost to speak in this house. Would you do that? Jesus, the Lord. I'm asking you in the name of Jesus, in the power of the Holy Ghost, in my mind, my heart, my thinking. I need your word. I want to passure then I'll be done. I want to go to stand. I want to go to Joshua chapter 4. Joshua the 4th chapter and the first verse. We're going to read just a few verses there, and then we're going to go to Ephesians and first Peter, and then I'm going to preach a very short message to you. Right now, I want to go to Joshua chapter 4 and I'm going to read uh the first few verses there of Joshua chapter 4.
And it came to pass when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, "You remember this. Take you 12 men out of the people, out of every tribe of man." Yeah. And command ye them to take ye out of the midst of Jordan, out of the places where the priest's feet stood firm, 12 stones, and you shall carry them over with you and leave them in your lodging place where you shall lodge this night. Yes. Yes. Then Joshua called the 12 prepared the children of Israel, tribe, land, and Joshua said, "Pass you before the ark of the Lord Jordan. Take up every man a stone upon his shoulder." Yes. "According to the number of the tribes and children of Israel." Wow. "That you may have a sign among you." Yeah. All right. "When your children." Yeah. "Come on." "Their fathers in times to come, what mean ye of these things?" Yeah. "Then you shall answer them that before the waters of Jordan were cut off, before the ark of the covenant the Lord passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be a memorial to the children of Israel forever." Thank you. That's good right there. Now, there you go. Verse five. Go back to verse three. He said, "Here's where I want you to take these stones from." All right. Where the feet. Yes. Of the priests. Stand firm. All right. And you put them in a lodging place. Yes. And when your children ask you, what name means these stones, you tell your children this is where the preacher speaks to the term. Yes, sir. You put them in your lodging place and say, "Our pastor has stood firm on some things, and these stones represent success." [Applause] You want a successful house, you need to build momentum. [Applause] You don't you don't need to question where his feet stand firm. You don't need to go up against instinct where his feet stand firm. You don't need to question in your house where his feet stand firm. You need to build a memorial for. [Applause] I'm talking to this church right now. You you look around you and say, "Man, I wish our church could grow like this church. I I wish our church could have the victory that this church has. I wish that our church could ascend and and get notoriety like this church. You know, this church is growing. This church is having her about." I want that for our church. It doesn't happen with an evangelist. It don't happen because you got a guy coming preach and he pulls something out of a suitcase. There's a foundation that has to be built first. [Music] The greatest evangelist in the world cannot have revival, but a pastor in a church has not first built a foundation for that revival. So what are you talking about tonight? All these things that you said about pastorship, I'm giving you the keys of of the foundation that that that revival built on. I'm going to tell you, you'll never have revival. You listen that Jordan River, the Bible says when this happened, it was the time of of the year that the Jordan River was out. That means it was a flood zone. Right. Right. Can you imagine throughout the years how many children, how many families? Because in that day, things were different than they are today. They didn't have the the moving objects and the ability of travel that we have. Can you imagine the people up and down the Jordan River who had lost children and babies and family members in that Jordan River when it got out of. That's why it was a big thing to them to say, man, had the had the preacher not walked in first. Yeah. All right. The reason we crossed on dry land where it was dry, and our children was not in risk of drowning, is because we were following the man of God. God, we can swim. The only reason we had a place to walk, the only reason our children were not in danger, what made my children different from the children in the next town, what made my family different from the from the children down the Jordan River somewhere that's trying to cross this same river? I'm going to tell you what is worth following the man of God. [Applause] I was raised in the church, and when I back there, there were some things that my pastor took a stand on that I thought was silly as a kid. You don't set me because other churches were doing what we couldn't do. Other churches were going places we couldn't go. We had a little hard scratch. Yeah. All right. When I was a kid, they first came out with God. Miniature God. Somebody asked said, "Brother Hoy, what do you think?" SC Hoy, your your great uncle, I believe. Said SC Hoy said, "What do you think about playing?" He said, "Oh, you don't need to do that. It don't even sound good." It was years before we played. All you mean all just cut little balls. All wipes go by years. You couldn't have got in early anyway. [Music] I'm thankful for a pastor who wanted to protect his congregation. Something. He's not just trying to preach against things. He's trying to protect the. [Applause] Right. You said, "Well, I don't understand that principle." Well, let me get it down where you live. I grew up in a neighborhood, and and you know, we were the we were the Pentecostals. All right. We were apostate when I was a kid. Just not in my house. All right. Listen to I can be looking where I am. All right. Yeah. And I look at where all the neighborhood kids were giving most. They died of drug addiction, alcohol overdose. All right. Some of them were in prison or DUI running over people and killing people under the influence. Go ahead. Involuntary manslaughter. Go ahead, brother. Wow. But you see, there was a thing at my house. I said, "Oh, the mom and dad, the neighbors are doing it." And they said, "Well, I didn't know you lived at the neighbor's house. I thought you live at this house." Well, I do live here. Well, that's the difference, right? We don't do things at this house. [Applause] Meet your parents. And I can remember going up thinking, "Oh my goodness, I've been born over at the Joneses, man. They having the best time." Brother. Until I became an adult. And guess what? Jones's marriage didn't make. Their mom and daddy busted up. They got strong from here to the other. My my parents stayed together, and they kept me in a prayer meeting, and they kept me in a Sunday school. I don't know what alcohol. I've never had a drug. I wouldn't know where you put in front of. It was rosemary or something. I had no idea. I've never seen marijuana because we had a pastor cross short. [Applause] Mom and Daddy. Mom and Daddy, why why don't we why don't we watch filthy movies and ungodly stuff and all that? Because our our priest speaks to a firm on that. We had a preacher said, "You don't need that in your house." That's the reason we don't do that is because our pastor speaks to where we place these families. How do we participate in things? Because we have a priest who speaks to a firm. But guess what? While they're waiting in char, while they're losing kids and drowning in a garden, it's flooding and outs. Hey, we're on track. [Applause] We have a priest who knows how to stay. Question. We're going to build a horror in our house. Say there's some of it we don't even understand. We can't even understand. But one day we will. One day. There's some things we don't even understand why we preach to stand. But rather than question him and rather than condemn, we're just going to build a little moral to it. I said, "God, we don't understand this, but we don't you don't have to understand and trust. In fact, the truth of the matter is, trust and trust when you can understand. When you can understand it, that ain't trust. That's agreement. Yeah. It's not trust when you see it too. That's agreement. That's so good. It's not trust until you can't figure out why in the world he's making that statement. Come on. But you have enough confidence in somebody that you just. [Applause] Said with your children, "What makes these stones?" You said, "Oh boy, you should have seen the miracle that." [Applause] "You should have seen. I I know you're too young to understand it, son. You never you should have seen the memorial. That's where our priest." When everybody else was. Priests. Yes, sir. See, they talk about crossing the Jordan River. It's typical of being saved, right? Back up to verse one, and I'm going move on from this this passage. Preach what I feel like God sent me here to preach and came to pass from the people. I like the way that you cross over Jordan, you going to cross over, right? Nobody's going to get there that don't clean. I don't think that's an accident. Glory to God. You going to be clean if you're going to cross Jordan. If you going to get me clean when you cross, it's going to be because you built a. [Applause] Families in our church when I was growing up. We had families in our church when I was growing up that disagreed with our stay in some of their houses. I get to their house and find out they were doing things or going places or wearing stuff. And I think to myself, our pastor preach this. I'd go home and tell my mom and daddy, "Mom and daddy, they, you know, they do this. Our pastors did that. They knew it at their house." And that, you know, I always just noticed it was just coincidence. I never got to go to that house again. All right. Because my p my parents felt like a pastor preached it. All right. Yeah. All right. [Applause] Right. He just said, "Man, I feel like you'd be satisfied." All right. That if it was suggested from that bullpit, it became a law. All right. Guess what? One of those boys, he's already committed suicide. He committed suicide about 35. Law. His alcoholism and drug addiction. Got another one serving a prison sentence. He ran over a family and killed that one. Third DUI. Raised in Pentecost. Went to the same Christian school of God. Come on, brother. Yeah. But he had but they both had parents that just didn't think. They just thought the pastor was over. They just didn't think they ought to do they question. And I went down the list out of a hundred young people who was in my youth group. Come on. Me and three more are the only ones today that are still in the church and alive. And many of them are out. One of them is an alcoholic on the streets of North Texas. He sleeps between the buildings. He was raised by one of the wealthiest families in our church. They were just another family who just didn't, you know, they just they picked and you know the pastors preaching to them was kind of a it was kind of a buffet. You just kind of go get what you. Not my family. It was kind of like I grew up, you eat everything on your plate. Yeah. If you don't like the homies, you better figure out a way to choke it down. If you didn't like it, you pretended you did. You say, "Well, that's a horrible way to be raised." Not in my opinion. All right. Looks like God's blessed me. All right. People that weren't that way. Lord. Preach. And you're going to have you're going to have in every church, you're going to have all these different degrees. You're going to have people that they're extremist, and boy, if the pastor preaches it, people look out and check their head, boy, they must not have a brain in their head. They let the pastor do all that. And then you're going to have people that they're so smart that the pastor, they they don't want the pastor. Then you going to have those people, those middle of the road people that try to do everything they can to follow the pastor. You got all these different and water seats on the road. And after 30 years of pastoring, sometimes I'm disappointed when I when somebody gets in the church and I find out who they s. I think, man, I had better hopes for you than that. Yeah. All right. Now, after 30 years of pastoring, I'm not doing it anymore just from the just from the church I grew up in. I'm now pastoring for people. All right. And I can say from the pastor's point of view, the ones that grabbed the holder and just said, "Pastor, if you preach it, we're going to follow it." That's right. If you're not right, you have to take it up to God because we don't know anything other than just to follow what our passion just believe in God. [Applause] Guess what? Three generations later, that not only are their kids still in the church, but their grandkids are in the church. The ones that from a distance and just kind of did their own thing and just told people I was their pastor. Most of them are gone today. There's broken marriages, broken dreams, broken kids. Tell the truth. So, you know, a pastor can't legislate things, especially in the day we live in. It's really up to you whether it becomes law. Amen. But I'm going to tell you, if you're going to get clean passed over Jordan, you're going to do it because you build a more. [Applause] Lift. I'm done. I'm not I'm not going to preach this thing already. I'm done with this. This is what the Holy Ghost wanted. Come on. Come on. You got to build a memorial in your home. You got to set up some memorials in your house. If you're raising families, you have to build some memorial. And you have to say, "Hey, children, I want you to know this. This is this is a firm stand." Well, why why does he stand firm on that? I don't know, but I just know he does. And we trust him. I don't know what that's. Looking around. I'm done. I'm finished preaching, but the Holy Ghost is not. I have never since I've been preaching felt such an anointing come on me. All right. I'm make some statements right now. Nobody looking around looking because the Holy Ghost just confirmed in my spirit where I've seen where I. All right. There are five notable miracles that God wants to work in this place tonight. Five notable miracles. One deals with cancer. One deals with a back situation. I I don't know if you can understand what I'm saying about it. It almost looks like lupus or leukemia. One, it's a situation of one of your children. There's a there's a mother here who you're just about to die of grief over your son. God wants to work a miracle. I just felt your grief in the spirit. I've never ended a message like I've never had anything like this. I'm going to tell you what's keeping your miracle back is not your faith in God. It's your fear and trust of God. And I I'm going to tell you they're one and the same. They're one and the same. You can only feel as strongly about God as you know about his man. Amen. We're not Catholic. I don't believe in priests. I don't believe in in all that. That's not what I'm going after. But I'm just telling you, this thing always comes back down to trust. And the only way the children of Israel got out of Egypt and into the land is they have to trust the land. And there's not a one of us that's going to get the glory that somewhere we don't just I'm going to put trust in God. I'm going to put trust in you. And I'm telling you in the Holy Ghost tonight, I I didn't come to preach this. You you you listen to me. I did not come to preach this. I I told them in the van coming over, I said, "I'm ransom what to preach tonight." And brother, when you you started quoting this passage, the Holy Ghost gave me that message. I want to ask you, how do you respond when a man of God takes a firm stand? Do you talk bad about it in the car and run your kids on the way home? Do you question him with other elders in the church? Or do you go home and build a memorial and say, "Thank God I got a man with a backbone. Like I'm thankful I got a pastor that cares enough about my family." Right or wrong, at least I know he loves my children. He wouldn't take that kind of thing if he didn't care about. Come on. What's your response? Is it is it offer your allegiance? Let me tell you what God told him to do. God said, "I'll tell you what you do. You take a stone out. You put it up. You tell your children that's what that's what a man of God speaks to." How did that How did that happen, mama? How'd that happen? I have no idea. But it's not up to me to question how it happened. How How those waves roll back? How did that How' that land get dry? Why was it not? I don't know. Let me explain the dynamics. All I can do is trust and say he stood firm. And because he stood firm, we had a firm foundation for our family. That's right. We live in a world where people are drowning in drugs. Yeah. Sexual dysphoria. Alcoholism, broken marriage, broken drinks. Up and down the Jordan River on each side. Families are drowning. They're losing their life in the flood waters of the world. And at the same time, we're blessed with a pastor who's leading us across that same flooded river in blood straight. But the difference in the Holy Ghost Apostolic Church is we're crossing on dry. And it's all because we're following God and we're building memorials in our home. What are you saying? I'm saying what I believe what's holding back that miracle that I've been showing you is you haven't just locked in and decided I'm going to follow my man of God. I believe there's some mothers and daddies and families if tonight you say, "I'm going to put trust in our pastor. I'm going to build memorials where he stands firm." Tonight is the night I'm really. You're not just voting in. Tonight I'm going to make you my pastor. You're not just preaching here. Not ever. [Applause] Stand. Miracles for your children. I believe God to work miracles in your body. I believe that's what's been holding it all. Stand together. Lift your hands. Jesus. Come on.