Transcription
Praise the Lord, everybody. I know I'm about two minutes early, but there's a couple of things I want to say before we get started. So, let's stand together. I won't leave you standing long. I'm very careful about that. But I want to say that uh this is Memorial Day. I know that we have a number of people traveling, and we pray for them that God keeps his hand on them while they travel. I'm thankful for all you that are here today. I want to welcome every guest that's here for this special Memorial Day service. And we do give honor uh to those that gave their lives for our freedom today. We give honor to every family that's lost someone that gave their life for our freedom. And uh someone, I believe it was uh George Patton, that said we should not weep over those who lost their life in service, but we should celebrate that we had men that brave. Those kind of men that were that brave. Most of them who died and lost their lives were just boys when they did. President Ronald Reagan said they gave up two lives. They gave up the life that they fought on the field with, and then they gave up the life that would have been—the life that would have been a father, the life that would have been a grandfather, the life that would have been a husband. They gave all that up for our freedom. And so, we're here to celebrate all that today, aren't we?
Why don't we just lift our hands and thank God for this great nation that we're privileged to be a part of? Jesus, dear Lord, thank you for this great nation as this weekend will memorialize lives that were lost for our freedom. Thank you, God, for your goodness and your mercy and your grace, in Jesus' name. Thank you for being with us on Memorial Day. Thank you for every guest. Look around if there's a guest around you. Turn around, step across the aisle, shake their hand, and welcome them. God bless you. Let's have church today, in Jesus' name. Glad you're here with us. You can be seated if you need to.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] The veil is to the tomb is empty. He is not there. He lives in victory. I have seen the scars that bought my freedom. You are strong. Your grace is amazing. Hallelujah. You are you final. Hallelujah. You are enough. Come on. Is he enough for you today? All this worship. My sin is gone. It's far gone. And I am forgiven. Now I'm alive. And my future's written. I have seen the stars. I see the stars in my freestle.
[Music] You are my resurrection. Hallelujah. You are enough. You found him to be enough today. He is enough. He's more than enough. Come on. I can't hold back my Hallelujah. Come on and lift your voice and sing it. I can't hold back my Hallelujah. I can't hold back my Hallelujah. You can have it all. Have it all, Jesus. Have it all. God, I can't hold back. Heat. Heat.
[Applause] Hallelujah. You have it all. Jesus, you have it all. God, I can't hold back. Heat. Heat.
[Applause] My s your grace is amazing. Hallelujah. You are One more time. Heat
[Applause] up
[Applause] here. Yeah.
[Applause] [Applause] Heat. Yeah. Heat.
[Applause] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Jesus. Hallelujah. You can be seated this morning if you need to worship.
[Music] [Music] Saturday was silent. Surely it was through. Since when I was impossible, I stopped you.
[Music] Friday's disappointments are Sunday's empty tomb. Since when has impossible ever stopped you? Oh, you know it. Sing it. Come on. Sing. This is the sound of trials rattling. Oh, something's coming back to life today. This is the praise making a dead man walk. Come on. All you crave up.
[Music] This is the sound. This is the sound
[Music] of Pentecostal fire. Postal fire stir.
[Music] I'm not going to
[Applause] ride
[Music] this mountain today. Yeah. Heat.
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] Hallelujah. I'm talking about a grave opening God. Oh, I'm talking about a stone rolling God. Yeah. My God is able to save and deliver and heal and resto. Oh, that you just ask for me. Just ask for the hard Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
[Music] I promise you when it all started rapping together it wasn't
[Applause] quiet. It might have started quiet. But when all those balls started ramming, I'm telling you, it sounded like thunder roll. It sounded like a rain. And I'm going to tell you, in a Pentecostal church, it ain't going to be quiet today. When you get your victory in the old bones that God's bringing back to life, start rallying. There's going to be a noise. Let it come out of your hands. Let it come out of your mouth. Let it come out of your feet
[Applause] today. This is what he said.
[Applause] Yeah. Make some noise.
[Applause] [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
[Applause] Yeah.
[Applause] Heat. Yeah. Heat.
[Applause] across this house. There's some things coming back to life in this house today. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You can go to the doctor if you're sick and he can help you. But there's no doctor that can bring something back to life once it's been pronounced. Oh, it's it is he's gone. It's dead. They can restart a heart that's just recently died. But they can't bring a dead man back to life. You serve a God and you're in the house of a God that can bring some dead things back to life today. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. If you will remain standing as you return back to your seats, we're going to give you an opportunity to be blessed in this house today. Hallelujah. If I could get a couple ushers to come help us. Hallelujah. I'm so thankful to be in P at Pine Grove this morning, the 12:00 service. Hallelujah. There's no place I'd rather be. And uh I want to say thank you to every guest that's here today. We got guests all across the house. And we want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being here with us today. And uh that's good. That's good. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I know without a shadow of doubt that you will be blessed for being here and uh the spirit of God that's that's already working in this place. Hallelujah. Lord, we ask that you take these offerings. We ask that you use them to further your gospel, God, and and expand your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray. March as you come and worship with them. Just sing.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Lord, you can be seated. Hallelujah. Thank you guys for helping us today. Choir, you go ahead and get ready. They uh they're about to sing a song. The title of it is What a God. What a God. And part of the song says, "If the highest place that I reach is just at your feet, just the just the ground that you stand on, then I've done it all." If the greatest thing that I see is your glory, then I've seen it all. There are there are many gods, but there's no God that you can say that about. No earthly gods, no no uh other spiritual gods that people serve. That can't be said of them. We serve an all-powerful, all-knowing God. And the only thing I can the only thing I can say is what a God that we serve. Worship with them as they sing today. Hallelujah.
[Music] I feel I
[Music] [Applause] [Music] You know you'd make good mistakes and nothing like I thought you were. You a God. What a God. What a God. What a God. What a God. What a God. What a God. He's been so faithful to me. What a God. What a God. Heat. Heat.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] I show what kind of lost. They say it's over. But you say, "No, it's not. No, it's not." You say, "No, it's not. No, it's not. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
[Music] I thought you show what kind of god for the lost. They say it's
[Applause] all but you say no it's
[Music] [Applause] not it's not Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Oh my god. And I see I see all
[Music] your heart. Yeah.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah.
[Applause] Heat. Yeah.
[Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
[Music] I see your
[Music] last heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat.
[Applause] [Applause] Oh, heat,
[Applause] heat. Heat. Heat.
[Applause] Oh, heat, heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat.
[Music] What a god. What a god. What a god. What a god. You
[Music] [Applause] are the highest place I reach. Touch your
[Music] feet.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] We lift our hands all over this building. Everybody would lift your hands and worship the Lord together. Come on, everybody here. Praising the Lord
[Music] together. Magnify the Lord with
[Applause] me.
[Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat.
[Music] Heat up here.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Let's lift our hands and worship the
[Music] Lord. Thank you Jesus.
[Music] As everyone just continues to worship, I want to
[Music] uh I want to say congratulations to our forest graduates. Are our forest graduates here
[Music] today? Where's my Where's my two young men that graduated in Forest week. Congratulations to
[Music] you. Who's running the Who's running the bookstore to today? Who's running the bookstore after service? Sister Summer. It's not after service. Okay. I want these two young men. They're There are Brown ERV version Bibles. I want you to give each one of them a ERV version Bible for graduation. Uh and u if they'll bring it to me, I'll I'll sign it and especially to them. I appreciate these young men. Congratulations to
[Music] you. I want to thank this church for your faithfulness. Those of you who are faithful to the prayer room, thank you for your faithfulness to the prayer room. And I want to go to the word of the Lord. Luke chapter 8 and verse 5. Luke the 8th chapter and the fifth verse. Luke chapter 8 and verse
[Music] 5. Luke 8 and 5 for your consideration for a few moments today. Luke chapter 8 verse 5 says, "A sewer went out to sew his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trotten down, and the fowls of the air devoured it." We're reading through verse 8. And some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it, and other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bear fruit a hundfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." I want to preach to you for a few minutes from a subject that I've not preached in years. I've not preached this in years. This was a message that God gave me that I regularly preached as an evangelist. I had never heard anybody else preach it. God gave it expressly to me, I believe. And I preached it all over this country. And since I've been pastoring, I've not preached this much at all. And it's been years since I even preached this subject. But I want to preach to you for the next few minutes. When mercy speaks a language that you can understand. When mercy speaks a language that you can understand. God bless you. Why don't you be seated? And right where you're seated, would you lift your hands and ask God to open our hearts and our minds to his word today? Jesus. Dear Lord God, we need your word today. We need to hear from you in this house. Speak to us, God. Don't let me say anything I shouldn't say and let me say everything I should. You direct my words. Let the Holy Ghost speak through me to people in this house. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. God bless you. There are well over 7,000 languages and dialects in our world today. Over 7,000 different languages. When you add in the different dialects connected to certain languages, you come up with a hundreds more than 7,000. And there is one person and one person alone that can speak every one of those languages and dialects and his name is Jesus Christ. There is not a language or a dialect that he cannot speak.
[Music] The scripture that I read in your hearing says a ser went out to sew his seed. This is Jesus using the typology of a farmer to talk about a preacher preaching the word. And he says as that ser broadcasts the seed that there was a variable that was out of his control and that variable was the type of ground that the seed fell in. Jesus's statistics are startling. His statistics bother me even though I know they're real and I know they're right because he's omniscient and he's all-knowing. But when it comes to this world, I'm not talking about the church now. I'm talking about the world as a whole. He says that three-quarters of the world will reject the word of God. They will not have the ability to bear fruit from the seed that drops into the soil of their heart. You and I are that soil. We're made out of the dust of the ground. We're made from that dirt. Right? And when the preacher preaches, he's sowing the seed into human soil. And this is what the Bible says about it. The Bible says that some falls upon a rock. It falls upon a stony rock. And so therefore, it never even begins to take root. Those are those that come, hear the word, go out the back door, and you never see or hear from them again. He says, "Some falls on the wayside and it takes root for a little while. It springs up." That's those that come for a few weeks or a few months. But then the Bible says that the busyness of life, it's trotten underfoot in the wayside and the fowls of the air come and pick the little sprigs up and eat them and it's gone. And then he says that some actually fall into what would be good ground, but they're surrounded by thorns. What is that? That's opinions of friends, false doctrines, other religions, and they grow. They they they go for a year or two or three, but then finally the the all the things that they're listening to except the word of God chokes it out and they die. But then there's one quarter that the Bible says it takes root and it's in good soil. None of those other variables are involved. And so it bears fruit 100fold. The Bible says when he said these things, he cried. It could have said he lifted his voice. It could have said he shouted. It could have said he said, "Hear ye, hear ye." It didn't. It said he cried because nothing makes a preacher cry like the rejection of the word. Nothing makes a preacher weep like all those that you try to help. But it just can't take root. That makes a preacher weep. Now, can you imagine the statistics? 1/4th. I think there's somewhere around eight billion people on the face of the earth right now. Can you imagine that three-quarters of them if they heard the word would reject it? According to Jesus's statistics, these aren't my numbers. These are the omniscient God's numbers. One quarter will receive the word. Can you imagine? Eight upwards of 8 billion people. That means that somewhere around 6 billion would reject the word and only 2 billion would hear. Only 1/4th. Can you imagine out of this crowd sitting here today that if you broke this building up into one quarter, it would mean only these two pews, these two sections right here would receive the word while all the rest of this church would reject it? Thank God that's not the numbers for the church. Matthew 25 he gives another parable. And in this parable he says that there are 10 virgins or virtuous women. What does that mean? That means that this statistic is going to be concerning the church. But he says that five of them were wise and five of them were foolish. In other words, he said, "The wise will hear those sayings of mine and do them. The foolish will not." You know, we've got to reach the point that we don't re-think that coming to church is enough. That just riding a pew is enough. We've got to reach the point that we got to understand that just because we show up doesn't make us saved.
[Applause] Half, according to Jesus Christ, half of those that hear that are virtuous will be lost. That means if you drew a line right down the middle of this building, right through those right in the middle of those two back doors, that one side would be saved and the entire other side would be lost. Now Paul the apostle made this statement and said he said how can they hear without a preacher? In other words, Paul's question was is there another way to be saved than the preaching of the word? And the answer is no. There is no other Bible plan. Right. There was a man that started an entire started an entire religion on the fact that he had met with an angel. But that's outside the realm of the word of God. The Bible says the only place and way that you'll hear the word. Paul said, "How can they hear except they hear a preacher?" You know who ever met with this angel Moroni and got some kind of a salvation from him. It's not based in the word of God. It's not biblical. Because the Bible says that Cornelius in Acts 10 also prayed down an angel. Yeah, he prayed down a real angel. And all his findings and everything that happened between him and that angel wasn't buried somewhere in some place that you can't find. It's recorded in the word of God. And the only thing that angel could tell him is go find a preacher and he will tell you what you got to do to be saved in Luke 16. That angel was from heaven. So heaven said, "You got to hear a preacher if you're going to be saved." And then in Luke 16, we have a rich man in hell and he speaks with Abraham and he says, "Abraham, send Lazarus back that he can preach to my five brethren that they might be saved. Surely if one comes from hell, they'll listen to him." Abraham said, "I'm not sending Lazarus back." They have Moses and the prophets. They have preachers. If they won't hear a preacher, then they won't hear one though he came from the dead.
[Applause] You see, we're living in the Amos 8 and 11 time period. Amos 8 and verse 11 warns us that there was a famine in the land. But they said the behold the days come, sayaeth the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land. It's not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of the hearing of the words of the Lord. There's coming a famine where people are just not going to hear a preacher.
[Applause] Many are going to be religious. They're going to sit on the pew, but they're not going to hear what they're not going to want to hear what's being preached. You know, there's a big difference in hearing and listening. Hearing takes intent. He didn't say the famine was going to be for preaching. Man, we got more preaching than there's ever been in the in the world. We got preacher people preaching on podcast. We got people preaching on YouTube. People leave our churches and listen to 15 other services. And I don't know why they do all that hearing when they won't do any listening.
[Applause] I don't know why they do all the hearing and the spiritual entertainment when they will not obey what's being preached in their own pulpit. And besides that, it doesn't matter to me who you listen to, what podcast you listen to. All that's okay as long as you understand that God gave you one pastor, one man of God. That's who you got to hear. And if it's not in line with what your pastor's preaching,
[Applause] I tell you what the devil would love for you to do is get all super spiritual and think you've heard somebody or you're listening to somebody that knows more than your pastor. Knows more than your man of God. He said the famine wasn't for preaching. There's going to be plenty of preaching. The famine is going to be people that can listen and hear what the preacher preaches. You see, really what's happening is the preachers the preacher's preaching one language and you're listening in another. Really, what's going on is the preacher has stopped talking your language. You see, you can't listen to spiritual preaching with carnal ears. You can't listen to spiritual preaching with a carnal heart. A carnal mindset and a carnal heart and a carnal spirit cannot receive the things of God. If the preaching starts making you mad, the problem ain't the preaching. They're preaching the same thing they've been preaching since the book of Acts. Something's happened to your heart. If the preaching stops moving you, that's what scares me. That's what scares me. I don't want it to ever reach the point that it takes too much to move me. That it takes too much to draw me to an altar. That it takes more than the pulpit has to bring tears to my eyes. The enemy works overtime to get you focused on the humanity of the man of God rather than the divinity of God's message.
Coming through that man. There was some people, some of my best friends, or one of my best friends growing up; he and his family lived by the railroad tracks in Buxy, Mississippi. And he said that it was always an amazing thing to see guests come over. He said because they lived by those tracks so long and that train would pass so close that he said you could almost reach your hand out the window and touch the side of the train. And he said, "But we'd lived there for years."
And he said, "A mile down the road, our house would start vibrating. And the closer the train got, the more intense the vibrations would become until the dishes were rattling in the cabinets. The whatnots were dancing around on mama's whatnot shelf. Your teeth were rattling when the train finally went by the house. And then as it went on by, he said that horn was so loud it'd knock you out of the bed. He said, "But as it went on by and everything settled down," he said, "it reached the point that we never even noticed it."
He said, "But when guests would come over and they were sitting in the living room visiting," he said, all of a sudden their eyes would grow wide. They didn't know if it was an earthquake. They didn't know if the city of Alexi was being bombed. They didn't know what was going on. He said finally when the train would get there, by that time they were up out of their chair, hyperventilating, screaming, "What in the world is going on?" And we'd say, "Oh, it's just the train; if you wasn't here to react, we wouldn't even know anything had happened."
Can I tell you that there's young people—I'm preaching to young people—that you've sat on these pews so long and you've listened to so much preaching and you've heard so many sermons that it's reached the point that when the preacher preaches, it's like he's preaching a foreign language. It's like he's preaching something that you don't even connect with. It's a dangerous thing to imagine the time could come that preaching wouldn't move me. It's a scary thing to imagine the time could come that a preacher could preach and everybody around me could be weeping except me. It's a scary thing to imagine a preacher could preach and everybody'd be stirred up except me. Everybody would be shaken except me.
Years ago, and I want to thank God that I've only seen it once or twice because it scared me so bad. But years ago, I preached a revival. This would have been 35 years ago. And a backslidden preacher, a Pentecostal preacher, came to my revival, over on the right in the altar. He began to pray. When I got done, he was one of the first ones in the altar, and he literally clawed the carpet until I could see blood forming around his fingernails as he screamed and cried and clawed the carpet. I went over to him and said, "Can I help you? Can I pray for you?" He said, "No, you can't help me. No one can help me." I said, "Why is that?" He said, "I'm not here because I'm under conviction. I'm not here because I'm stirred. I'm here because I'm not. I've lost my ability to feel God. I'm begging God to let me feel conviction again. I'm letting go; I'm begging God."
Do you understand that conviction is the blessing of God? It's the favor of God. It's not owed to anyone. It's an involuntary emotion. It's a holy tremble that God blesses you with, but he doesn't have to. What happens when you become so callous that you can't feel it? I can remember reaching over and laying hands on that man. It was like somebody poured a bucket of cold ice water over me. I couldn't feel anything at all. And I had to leave that revival knowing that that man had come several times and begged God to let him feel him. But his report was always the same, defeated as he walked out and says, "I can't feel anything. I can't feel the presence of God anymore."
Isaiah 58:1. Isaiah 58:1 says this. Isaiah 58:1 instructs the preacher to lift his voice up like a trumpet. He says, "Preach the word and lift your voice like the sounding of a trumpet." The preached word is compared to a trumpet. "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins." You see, the kind of preaching I'm doing today is the real preaching that the Bible talks about. All this superficial stuff, this spiritual entertainment is not real biblical preaching. This is real biblical preaching. Lift your voice. The voice of a preacher is typed to a trumpet. Yeah. And when you reach the point that you can't respond to this trumpet, you won't respond to the rapture trumpet. The testing to see if the rapture trumpet can lift you out of the world is if a preacher trumpet can bring you out of the pew. If the preacher's trumpet can't get you in an altar, then the rapture trumpet won't get you into the glory world. Oh, but I'm telling you right now, if the sound of the preacher trumpet can move you from your pew, then the last day trumpet will move you into the glory world.
First Kings chapter 19 and verse 11. First Kings the 19th chapter and the 11th verse. First Kings 19:11. He said, "And go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great strong wind rent the mountain." This wind was so strong that it broke the mountain in pieces, the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord, as strong as that wind was, the Lord wasn't in it. And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in an earthquake. Verse 12. The next one is a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice. I believe the significance of this story is this: If you ever get to where you can't hear the voice of God, he's got other ways to get your attention. He's not going to just let you go to hell.
You see, I think we misunderstand mercy. I think there's a lot of things that we call judgment that's really mercy. I don't believe that anybody in our generation, for hundreds of years on each side of us, has seen the judgment of God. I believe everything we've seen is mercy because anything is better than going to hell. Hell is so horrible and so terrible and so without remedy that anything that could happen to you in this life that would make you get right with God is better than you going to hell. Now God's plan is that what I'm doing right now would do it. God's plan is that at the end of a preached word that you would run to the altar and get your life right with God. God's plan is that a preacher would come. That's the only way that you can be saved. And so, you would think that once a person gets to the point that preaching doesn't move them, that they're eternally lost. But God loves people too much for that. That's right. He is relentless in his love. Yeah. And what we call judgment is really the mercy of God to speak in another language. You see, if you get to where you can't hear his voice, he can blow your world apart with a tornado or a hurricane. It'll get your attention. If you get to where you can't hear preaching, he can shake your world apart with an earthquake until there's nothing left when he gets done. But he loves you too much just to let you be lost. He can burn everything you love out of your life until you're left with nothing but God. And that, my friend, is not judgment. It's the long arm of mercy. As God stands with his back to the hot flames of hell, as Jesus Christ takes that back that was whipped and beaten and ripped apart and the blood flowed so that you could be saved. And he takes that same back and puts it as the hot flames of hell lick against it. And he says, "Whatever it takes, I can't just let you go. I love you too much to let you go to hell. If you get to where you can't hear the language of preaching, I've got other languages to talk to you in. I don't want to, but I'm not turning you loose."
Mark 9 and 45. Mark chapter 9 and 45 tells us something very interesting. He says anything is better than you going to hell. And here's the thing today. I know I'm preaching to everybody in this place and I pray people, all guests back there, I pray you come to this altar and get the Holy Ghost today. But you're not really the focus of my message today. I'm going to tell you in the Holy Ghost, I woke up early this morning before the sun rose with this message eating on me. Because I realize I've got young people in this church who have become professional Pentecostals. You've sat under so many moves of God. You've shaken under so many powerful moves of the Holy Ghost. You've heard so many powerful preachers preach that you've gotten immune. You've gotten immune to the move of God. You can sit under this power and still sin. You can sit under this kind of power and have sitting, hidden sin in your heart. And this is a message of warning today, straight from the Holy Ghost that God says, "I'm not going to let you go easy. I'm not going to let you go to hell. If you get to where you can't hear the preaching, don't think that you're just off the hook because I've got other ways I can get your attention. I'll touch you in the places that you love the most. I'll take out of your life the things that are dearest to you. Not in judgment, but because of my mercy is stopping you from being lost." [Applause]
Here's Jesus's warning. He says, "Hell is so eternal and it's so hot and it's so horrible." He says, "I want to give you a warning. If your hand is sending you to hell, find you a good sharp hatchet and a good stump and lay your arm on that stump. And take that hatchet and cut your hand off until it wiggles and rides as it separates from your body, and bandage up that stump that's left because you'd be better to go into heaven only having one hand than to take your two good hands and go to hell." [Applause] He said, "Let me tell you what you do. If it's your foot that's offending you, if it's your foot that's keeping you out of heaven, then you do the same thing. You take that same hatchet and you lay your leg up on that same stump and you take that hatchet and until you cut that foot off because it would be better for you to hobble into heaven not having one foot than to take your two good feet and run to hell. Anything, anything is better than hell. Anything." He said, "If it's your eye that's offending you, if it's because you can't stop looking at stuff you shouldn't look at," he said, "Let me tell you what you do. You take your finger and you jab it as far back in that eyehole, that eye socket as you can get it. And then you loop your finger around the back of that eyeball and you pull it out and take you some sharp scissors and cut the tendons off that control that eyeball because it would be better for you to go into heaven having only one eye than to take two good eyes and go to." You know what he's saying? Anything you have to face, anything you have to suffer, anything you have to go through is better than you going to hell. [Applause] And here's what he says: I love you too much to let you sit on my apostolic pews and sin and fiddle around with sin and send yourself to hell. If you reach the point that a good convicting message can't move you, I'm just warning you. I've got other ways. I can speak in a language you will understand. But I'm not just going to let you go to hell. I love you too much for that. I care too much for you just to let you go.
I need everybody in this house praying right now. I'm almost done. Come on everybody. Everybody. Come on. I need every prayer warrior in this house. God won't let you go easy. God won't let you go easy. He loves too hard. Musicians, come please. I need some prayer warriors praying right now. I'm reaching for any particular people in this house. Anything's better than you going to hell, anything God has to do. There was a little boy that got a bicycle for his birthday or Christmas, whatever the event was. He was riding that bicycle up and down the driveway. But you see, the problem was they lived on a major highway, a major thoroughfare. They got to noticing that that boy got braver and braver and braver, and he got to where he was riding that bicycle out into that road and turning around and riding back up in the driveway. And so the daddy pulled him aside and said, "Son, don't go past the mailbox. Don't ride your bicycle past the mailbox." He'd get braver and braver and time would go on. He was riding past the mailbox, and his dad said, "Now, son, I'm going to warn you one more time. Don't go past that mailbox. The next time I catch you past that mailbox, I will get your attention." One evening, his dad, coming in from work, made that turn onto the highway that passes in front of their house. And way down the road at his house, he saw that bicycle come out into the road and turn around, go back up the driveway. When he pulled his car up in the driveway, he got out. He grabbed that son off that bicycle, and that boy heard those that belt come out of those pant loops, and he wore that boy's legs out all the way to the house. Now, I know you may think that's judgment. It's not. That's ultimate love. That's mercy beyond what we can describe and imagine. 'Cause what that daddy understood is he'll quickly heal over the stripes on his legs. But there is no coming back from a truck running over him in that highway. I'm saving him with a little sting of correction. I had to speak to him in a language; he couldn't understand the language I—obviously he couldn't understand the language I was talking in. I had to talk to him in a language he would understand. I came here to preach to somebody.
God's not going to let you go. You may think you've conquered because you got to the point that preachers don't move me anymore. I'm not scared of that preaching. I'm not scared of the way that preacher preaches. And you think, but that if you're beyond us, you're just on your own. Well, I'm going to tell you, God loves too hard for that. His love is too eternal. And I came to tell you, it may be in the back of an ambulance, but God knows your language. It may be you repenting while you hear the whirl of an ambulance siren, headed to the emergency room, hoping that you'll make it. But I'm just telling you, God knows how to speak your language. It may be him taking the face of a beautiful young girl and smearing it in the glass of a windshield until it's ripped apart. And you say, "Oh my God, that's judgment, Brother Copelan." Not if it puts her in an altar. Not if it saves her soul. It would be better. It would be better to have a face that's cut up and be saved than to take that beauty and send you to hell. [Music] I'm preaching to some particular people in this place. God loves too hard to just let you go. Mercy knows how to speak a language that you can't [Music] understand.
Thom, Georgia. My wife remembers well the story I will tell. Thomas, Georgia. There was a guy in the church that literally the way he stayed upright in the wheelchair was he had a belt under his arms that tied him to the back of the wheelchair. He had no legs whatsoever, not even stumps to hold him upright. They literally had to belt him to the back of the wheelchair so he could be all upright. But he ran the aisles in that wheelchair. While I would preach, he would wheel that wheelchair and run it into the pulpit and say, "Preach, preacher. You better preach to him, preacher." From the time the music started till it ended, he circled that auditorium in that wheelchair. I finally asked the pastor. I said, "Pastor, you got to tell me what's the story of the man in the wheelchair." He said, "Oh, Brother Copelan, that's a story now." He said, "That boy was raised in this church." He said, "I'm telling you, that boy loved sports. He loved football, basketball, baseball." He said he was so into sports and then got to running with that crowd, smoking and doping and drinking and chasing women and said he wouldn't come to church. He wouldn't live for God. Said he'd come, he'd sit on that back row and just about defy the preacher. He came just to please his mama. And soon as service was over, out the door he'd go. He'd say, but you know, he was a tender boy that loved God, but sports, sports and the wild life got him. He said, but then one day his mother came to me and said, "I can't let my boy go to hell. I don't understand you people, you parents that say you love your kids and them being saved is the last thing on your list. You can't really believe in hell. You can't really believe this. You wouldn't sit up and sin with them if you really believe they're lost. You wouldn't sit up and sin with them if you really believe they're lost. You'd push the plate back if you really understood hell." She did. She said, "I'm not letting my boy be lost." She said, "Heaven won't be heaven for me if my boy is in hell." She said, "Pastor, I'm going to push the plate back and I'm praying whatever it takes to save my boy, it'll be worth it. Whatever that is, whatever that has to be." He said, "Sister, I got to warn you, that's a dangerous prayer to pray." She said, "Oh, no. Not for a mama that believes in hell. I want my boy; I don't want my boy to be lost." She began to pray, "God, whatever it takes, don't you let my boy go to hell." And he said, within weeks, he said, "My phone rang at 1 or 2:00 in the morning." And he said, "I answered it." And it was a nurse at the emergency room. She said, "You better get down here. There's a boy dying. He's calling your name. Wants to see his pastor." He said, "I threw my clothes on, ran down that emergency room." And said, "There lay her boy." Both of his legs cut off at the torso, and blood was squirting out of each of those main arteries against the wall and running down the wall. And they said, "You better pray, preacher. He's losing blood faster than we can pump it in." He hadn't got long if something don't change. He said, "I laid hands on that boy and said, 'God, you got to stop that blood. He's not intended to die. He's intended to repent.'" This is the answer to his mother's prayer. And he said, "Without, that blood stopped as if somebody would have clicked those veins up." You see what happened? He drove an old sports car from the 50s or 60s with a metal dash. Drinking with his buddies and whoever in the car, friends in the car, he rounded the corner at a high rate of speed, ran off the road, and hit a big oak tree. The impact pushed him down in that floorboard, and that metal dashboard came down and severed his legs at the body. [Music] He said within just a few weeks when they got him patched up and got him in a wheelchair and got him where he could, he said he rolled through those back doors, he said he never stopped in service. He came right down that aisle right straight to the altar and prayed through and said he's been running these aisles back in my preaching just like that. Ever since, he said, "That's been years now, Brother Copelan. He's gotten married. See those three kids? Those three kids belong to him. He's in this church; him and his wife are some of my main supporters. But you see, God had to speak to him in a language that he could understand. He forced God to speak in another language besides the preaching of the word.
Stand together and lift your hands everybody all over this building. I need some prayer warriors right now to help [Music] me. Come on. I'm going to tell you right now, listen to me. I'm going to tell you right now that if somebody doesn't let this message change you within weeks, there's somebody that's going to come to me and you're going to say, "It happened in my life. God got my attention." I'm telling you, I'm preaching to somebody here. It's
Up to you. You can either let preaching shake you. You can either let preaching stir you, or God's God loves too hard to just let you go. He's going to come to you in another language. He loves you too much to just let you go.
Generette, Louisiana. Generet, Louisiana. I'll make it quick. I preached this message in Generet, Louisiana 35 years ago as an evangelist. When I got done, the pastor came to me and said, "I want to show you a couple." And he pointed them out. I'll make this short and open the altars. But he said they were raised in and around this church, but they never would commit. They never would just commit. And he said they would come, but come on Sunday morning, Sunday morning, go to meet and talk kids and they knew better and all that. He said, "And one day they had a get-together at their house and the brothers got together and decided they were going to play basketball. And so they were moving their vehicles to play ball." And he said the owner of the house, the young man I'm talking about, he and his wife said he went out and got his big four-wheel-drive pickup and backed up, ran over something. He thought he ran over his little girl's bicycle. He said he immediately got angry and said, "I've told her to keep that bicycle out of this road, out of this driveway, put that bicycle up," and he jumped out ready to pull that bicycle out and get on to her. And when he looked down, it wasn't the bicycle. It was his little girl. And he delicately pulled her lifeless body out from under that tire and went running down the road screaming, "God, I'll get right with you. I'll get right. I will commit, God. I will commit to you. I'll quit playing games. If you'll give me my little girl back, I'll never miss another service. I'll get right with you. I will commit. God, just give put the life back in my [Music] baby."
He said, "Can I tell you something, Brother Copelan? God didn't put the life back in that baby. They buried her." He said, "I'm telling you, they never miss a service. They never miss an offering. They never miss an outreach. They're some of the most committed young people I've got, young couples I've got." He said, "But God had to speak to them in a language. They got to where they couldn't hear the preacher. Preaching wasn't enough. Alt calls weren't enough. Reaching wasn't enough. It just wasn't enough for a service to get them. So, God loved them so much he had to speak a language that they would understand."
Lift your hands together. And I got to ask you, what's it going to take for you, young lady? I'm telling you, I'm preaching to some young people in this church. I I'm preaching to some teenagers in the youth group. I'm preaching to some young men in the college and career. I want to ask you, what's it going to take? If preaching can't do it, if services can't stir you, if an altar call can't reach you, can I can I ask you, what kind of language is mercy going to have to speak to you in? Lift your hands together. Somebody cry out, "These altars are open." Come on. These altars are open. Pray with somebody. Bring somebody to the altar with you. Come on. Come on. Come on. What kind of language is God going to have to speak to you to get you to come in? He loves too hard to just let you go. He loves too deep to just let you go. Oh, mercy's got another language. Come on. I wish everybody would come today. I Come on, pray with somebody. Find somebody and pray with them. Preachers, find somebody and pray with them. Come on. I wish no one I wish no one would miss this opportunity to pray in these [Music] altars. Come on. Come on. Come on. [Music] Somebody said, "Brother Copeland, that kind of preaching don't scare me." I didn't preach it to scare you. I preached it because it's real. It's reality. God is reaching for you. God is reaching for you. God loves you. His grace will come. Come on everybody, find somebody and pray for them. Come on, everybody. Preachers, help me. Preachers, work these crowds. Nobody needs to go home without somebody praying for them. Help me men of God. Help me preachers. I'm ready. I'm ready. Help me preachers. Help me preachers. Help me preachers calling. Help me saints of God. Help me saints of God. He will provide my healing. I'm running to the mercy seat. I'm running. I'm running. I'm running to the mercy seat where Jesus is calling. His grace will cover me. God will flow for me. He'll provide my healing. I'm running. Come on, somebody get serious with God today. Somebody get serious with God today. Somebody get serious with God today. [Music] Come on preachers, help me work this crowd. Everybody needs to be prayed for today. Everybody needs to be reached today. Holy Ghost fill saints of God, find somebody and pray with them. I'm running. I'm running. I'm running to the My God in Jesus name. My God in the name of Jesus. Come on preachers, work this auditorium. Come on men of God, work this auditorium. Somebody needs prayer today. Somebody needs prayer today. Somebody needs prayer today. What's it going to take to get your attention? What's it going to take to shake your world? What's it going to take to stir your heart? His blood. What's it going to take to move you? He'll provide my healing. I'm running to mercy seat. Oh, he said that I could come into his presence without fear. Oh, into the holy place where mercy hurts me. [Music] Come on. I need the help of preachers today. I need the help of saints of God today. Look around. Help me pray for people. Please help me. Look around. Help me pray with people. He will provide the healing to the mercy seat. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm running through the mercy seat where Jesus is calling. He said grace will cover me. His blood will flow me. He will provide my he to the mercy seat. Oh, I'm running. I'm running. I'm running into the mercy seat with Jesus. He's calling. He said his grace will cover me and his blood for me. He'll provide the truth. The mercy seat. Oh, I'm running. I'm running. Come on. Don't stop. Reach out. the mercy seat. Come on, let a hunger get a hold of this crowd today. He's calling. He said his grace would come with me. He's Come on. Come on. He'll provide. Come on. Let the Holy Ghost move you today. Come on. Let the Holy Ghost move you today. [Music] [Applause] [Music] This grace will come. Come on. Come on. God loves too hard to just let you go. God loves too hard to just let you [Music] go. Come on, saints of God. Help me. Come on, preachers, help me. Jesus, help me work this crowd today. Man of God, his grace will cover me. His blood flows. He will provide me. I'm running to the mercy seat. I'm running. I'm running. I'm running to the mercy seat. Come on, everybody praying for somebody. This is a serious day today. This is a serious altar call today. Everybody praying for [Music] [Applause] somebody. I'm running. I'm running to the mercy seat where my Jesus is calling. His grace will cover me. His blood flows healing. He'll provide my healing. Yeah. I'm running. I'm running. I'm running to the mercy seat. When Jesus is calling, he said grace would cover me. His blood will flow for me. He will provide my healing. I'm running to the mercy seat. Come on. The Holy Ghost is reaching today. Come on. The Holy Ghost is reaching today. Don't leave this building without praying. Don't leave this building without praying. Don't leave this building without [Music] praying. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Now I'm running. I'm running. I am running to the mercy seat where Jesus is calling. He said his grace would cover. His blood will flow for me. He'll provide my my healing. Come on, don't stop. God's not done. Come on, look around you and pray with somebody. Come on, saints of God, find somebody and pray with [Music] them. Don't let anybody leave this house without somebody praying over them. [Music] Jesus. Jesus. [Music] [Applause] Jesus. Woo. My God. My God. [Music] [Applause] Hey, hey, hey. [Applause] [Music] Come on, lift your hands and worship. The Holy Ghost ain't quite done. Come on, there's still some things happening in this service. Come on, there's still some things happening. Come on, help me push this presence just a little bit longer. It's still early. It's still mighty early. Come on, help me. Help me reach [Music] out. Come on. Come on. Help me reach out to the Holy Ghost right now. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, Holy Ghost. Oh, Holy Ghost. Oh, Holy Ghost. Come on. There's an intensity. There's a passion in this place. Come on. There's a passion and an intensity in this [Music] house. I believe this message was a message of prophecy. I believe this was prophetic for somebody in this place. Come on. I beg you to take this message seriously. I beg you to make it take it seriously in your heart. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh. Holy Ghost. Oh, Holy Ghost. Oh, Holy Ghost. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Come on, Pine Grove. Keep working this altar. God's not finished. Come on. It's not even 1:30. Keep working this altar. God's not done. Come on. Keep working this altar. God's not finished with this [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] service. Come on. God's not finished. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Use my blood to flow freely. He'll provide my healing. I'm running to the mercy seat. [Music] Oh, I'm running running to the mercy seat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I want us to entertain the Holy Ghost just a moment. God's not done in this house. I'm asking everybody that's full of the Holy Ghost, entertain the presence of God that's here. Find somebody. Look around and pray with somebody. Look around and let God speak to your heart. God may send you to somebody to pray with him. Come on, be open to what the Holy Ghost is doing. There's some miracles that need to take place still. There's still some miracles that need to take place before we leave this house. I believe God may have a word for us before we leave this house. Come on. Entertain the presence of God. Be open to the gifts of the spirit and the moving of the Holy Ghost. If the gifts of the spirit want to work through you, you let them. Don't hold back. There's serious things that need to happen today. Come on. The gifts of the spirit are in operation in this house. [Music] [Applause] to his mercy. Come on. The Holy Ghost is working. Come on. The Holy Ghost is working. [Music] Healing. [Music] [Applause] his mercy. His mercy will cover. Come on. Come on. Let the Holy Ghost work. [Music] Come on. The Holy Ghost isn't finished. The Holy Ghost isn't [Music] [Applause] [Music] done. But I will glory. Oh, to the mercy sea. The mercy se running running into his mercies in his grace. You would you lift your hands with me and just enjoy this presence of God just a moment. Come on. There's something that just hadn't released yet. Come on. Let's give God a little bit of room. Something hadn't released yet in this [Music] altar. Come on. There's still something there. There's still something there. Let's let God [Music] work. Come [Music] on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Linger. Come on, linger just a moment. As the presence of God works, as the Holy Ghost [Music] works. Come on. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's [Music] it. Come on. That's it. That's beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. [Music] Holy [Music] Ghost. Holy [Music] [Applause] [Music] Ghost. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Come on. That's it. That's it. That's it. Reach. Come on. The Holy Ghost isn't [Music] [Applause] finished. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] My God, what an anointing that's in this house. Come on, let's entertain the presence of God. Come on. Come on, let's entertain God's presence right [Music] now. My God in Jesus name. Woo. My God in Jesus name. [Music] Oh, the Holy Ghost is so real right now. My God, the Holy Ghost is so real. Come on, the Holy Ghost. Would you lift your hands and ask the Lord to fill these vessels? Come on. Ask God to fill these people with the Holy Ghost right now. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Come on. Come on. The Holy Ghost is trying to fall right now. Come on. The Holy Ghost is trying to fall right now. Oh, the Holy Ghost is trying to fall right now. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Come on. The Holy Ghost is working. Come on. The Holy Ghost is working. [Applause] [Music] Come on. The gifts of the spirit are in operation in this building. I need every Holy Ghost fill believer tapping into the gifts of the spirit. Prophecy, the word of knowledge, tongues and interpretation. It's all here working. Come on. Come on. Tap into what the spirit's doing, church. [Applause] [Music] Come on. I need every Holy Ghost believer tapping into the gifts right now. Make yourself available to it. Get in the Get in the move of the spirit and make yourself available to what the Holy Ghost is doing. Come on. This is a strong church. This is Come on. This is a spiritually mature church. Get into what God's the Holy Ghost is working right now. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Let's lift our hands one more time. Everybody here, lift your hands one more time. Just reach out to the Holy Ghost. I need us to entertain and tap into the spirit. There's still something here that has not released and we need to tap into it right [Music] now. Come on. Something hadn't [Music] released. Would you just entertain the Holy Ghost a minute? [Applause] Come on. There's still something more the spirit wants to do. It's been a long time since I've been in a service where prophecy, word of knowledge, tongues interpretation, all these gifts are working. All these gifts are working right now. Let's just entertain the Lord. Let God work through you. Be open to the moving of the spirit. Come on everybody here. Eyes closed, hearts hearts surrendered. [Music] Spirits lifted to heaven [Music] m my my [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Thank you, Jesus. Let's lift our hands together one last time. One last time, just entertain his [Music] presence. My God, my God. Do it, Holy [Music] Ghost. Do it, Lord. M my my my my [Music] my God have [Music] mercy. God have mercy. Thank you for your presence, Lord. [Music] Thank you, God, for the goodness and the mercy of the Lord. We're going to entertain him just a second just to see what he wants and then we're going to close this [Music] service. There's just such a feeling here. Let's just make space and make room for the Holy Ghost. [Music] He'll speak to your heart on an individual basis right now. Holy [Music] Ghost, let him talk to you. Let him reassure you. Let him speak to you in the house of God. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Holy Ghost. [Music]