Thank you for your grace, O Lord God. We thank you for your mercy, and we thank you for the holy ghost, O Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, O Lord God, for the anointing that we feel in this place, O God. Lord, we ask you, O God, to anoint your people that are at Zoom, O God, at home, O God, anoint them where they are, Lord.
Because we can feel your presence in here, Lord, but I need you to do something special for them, O God. Anoint them where they are, anoint their bodies if they're sick, O God. Help them and keep them, O God. Remember those that are in the sanctuary right now have ailments or sickness, O Lord God.
Touch them and help them and heal them in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, use these lips of clay. Anoint me, O God, give a word unto your people, O God. Bless and help and keep.
In Jesus' name, everyone say, Amen, may be seated. Isn't the Lord good to us? Isn't the Lord great? I have to say that the Lord is, He is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
He's wonderful to us, giving highest honor to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, giving honor to Bishop Geddes and to Assistant Pastor, Elder Geddes, and all the elders and the ministers and mother Geddes. That's all I want to do is that the Lord, I be used by the Lord that you be blessed, that you would hear something from the Lord, and I do believe the Lord will hear from us tonight and we will hear from the Lord. I thank the Lord for my wife being here. I thank the Lord for my children being here.
I thank the Lord for my daughter Rachel who's taking a siesta right now, but as soon as service is over she'll be up and about like she had two cups of coffee talking to everyone. I don't know how that is, but I kind of like that. But I thank the Lord for her having the heart and mind to seek for the gift of the Holy Ghost and she wants the Holy Ghost and I know that the Lord is going to fill her. I can see the anointing upon her and that's what we want.
That's why we come here. That's why we come here. Amen. Okay, so if you're not smiling on your mask, I'm going to close my eyes just to your self.
Then go ahead, close your eyes and smile, think about something wonderful and smile, think about tomorrow Lord willing and smile, think about something that the Lord has done for you at one time in your life. And smile to the Lord, between you and the Lord, not give the Lord a praise, give the Lord a hand clap for the Lord is good. We're in this church for a reason. We're not here, but it's not a club, we're not part of some organization, we're not part of what we have to be here because this is part of our where we have to have a document that says we have to meet here.
We're here for the saving of our souls. That's why we're in the church. That's why I'm here. And one of the reasons why we want to be in the church is that we want to hear what the Lord has to say.
We want to see what the Lord's going to go through a testimony. We want to be a witness to the songs of praise. We want to see people delivered. This is a place where you can experience God for yourself.
And so we don't have to put on a show, and we don't have a number of how many people, but we need to come to the house of the Lord, because this is where the Lord, the Lord is from this. He fills with the Holy Ghost. He took away our sins so we can come and worship Him. So we should not take this for granted.
There are people around the world right now that cannot do what we're doing right now. There are people in Canada right now that are locked up. And this thing is touching everyone, and not to mention the other stuff regarding the pandemic and the fear and all that. The point is that we're in here.
Yeah, we're wearing masks, but we're in here. We can wave our hands. We can hear. We don't have to be in our home in front of a TV set.
I mean, we're really privileged. So when you get out of here at night tonight, give the Lord some thanks. Say, Lord, despite what's going on, thank you for allowing me to come in the sanctuary. Thank you for allowing me to come here, because we don't know what's coming down the pike.
We don't know what's coming next. We can't take it for granted. If someone came up here in 2019 December and said, this is what's gonna happen in 2020, we would not believe, just like some of you don't believe the Lord is going to come soon. So it's not about me trying to twist your arm to believe.
I'm just saying, in the moment, be appreciative. In the moment, be thankful. It's a privilege to serve the Lord. It's a privilege to be in your right mind.
John chapter 14, first one, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am there, you may be also. And whether I go, you know, in the way you know, in Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whether thou goest, how can we know the way? And Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father, by me. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. How many believe that you can go to heaven from here? And I mean in this ministry, not so much in the church.
You can be in the church, but not be part of the church. I'm talking about if you're in the congregation and you are bought into the ministry, how many believe that you can go to heaven from here? Every hand should go up. From the teaching and the preaching that goes on here, the biblical standard of holiness, we should be able to go from heaven, from here to heaven.
You can get there from here. There was an expression years ago. It was a commercial that was a Lipton T commercial of a football player probably back in the late 70s. And he walked into this cabin, I guess it was up in Maine.
And he said, how do I get to Bar Harbor? And he's in the gentleman turned around in the cabin with a big coat on and giving the type of commercial. He said, you can't get there from here. And we've all heard that because they put that in other areas.
But the expression with came from a place of distance and then someone coming and looking for a location. And because the person was not really educated, because this really took place in the 50s. It was a record that was up in the Northeast. And I did some depth on it.
Basically, it really happened. And it was a lobsterman. And someone was asking for direction to Bar Harbor. And he was up in the area.
But because of his limited education and his frustration of trying, because it wasn't Matt Quest back then, he started trying to give the streets and the roads. And he got so frustrated. He said, you can't get there from here. And so they borrowed part of that.
But you know, there's a lot of people right now in churches right now. They can tell you how to get to heaven. They can point you to a direction. But they really can't verifiably tell you if they were going to get them in a room and put a polygraph on them, a preacher I'm talking, will you go to heaven?
There'll be some doubt. We don't need to be in 2021. We don't need to be in a perplexed, complex situation of knowing whether or not we're going to heaven. If you've been baptized in Jesus' name, and you've really repented of your sins, and you've received the gift of the Holy Ghost, you are a candidate for heaven.
That's just what the Bible says. We have pages that will show you that. But you don't have to worry about whether or not you're going to go. The bottom line is that you have to understand something.
The enemy's trying to take away your, he's trying to take away your satisfaction in Jesus. He's trying to whittle away that this is a hard way. He's trying to make it so that this is difficult, looking for an out so that you can have an excuse. Have you ever been late to somewhere?
Have you ever been driving somewhere and been late in the car? And you're driving and you know you're late. It happened five years ago, do you remember that? It happened 10 years ago, do you remember that?
20 years ago, do you remember that? Driving you're late. Hurried, airport, whatever. But you're still here.
Now if I said, do you remember half a day ago, you were running late. Your blood pressure was way up. You were frantic. You thought the world was going to end.
We have to put things in proper perspectives. Have you ever been lost before there was a map quest? Did you ever pull on the side of the road and ask for directions? And someone blurted out all these directions.
And the person that you were with were hoping that they were taking notes. But you found out you were lost. You were further lost. And so that you keep going until you find the right direction.
You don't just keep on going until you stay lost. You have to go backtrack where you came from. I'm talking before there was the maps. There was ramic nalleys, things like that.
Before there was a map quest, you had to get some direction. Just in the top of the car, if you know where you're going, especially New York, Boston, up north, across the country, you need to get some kind of direction. And then when you got to the point where there was no cell phone, and so there was a payphone pot possibly, you had to ask for some direction. You had to ask for some information.
So whenever you got lost a long time ago, did you find your way out? If you're sitting here, the answer is yes. If you're still lost, you're in the right place. But you're not lost.
You're here. You don't have to find your way because of trouble. You don't have to try to make a way out of your own way. And someone said, everywhere is within walking distance, if you have the time.
If you have the time, you can get anywhere you want. I don't really have that much time to walk everywhere I want to go, and I don't want to try to find out. But in this church, you can make it to heaven from here. You may ask, why are you so sure?
Because what we are built upon is about the apostles, at the apostles doctrine. The chief cornerstone is Jesus Christ. We baptize in Jesus' name because the Bible says so. We tell people they must repent before we baptize them.
Why? For the remission of sins. That they should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Because that's what comes with the baptism of Jesus' name.
You shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. That makes you a candidate for heaven. And then you must live a holy life. Stay away from idols.
Stay away from fornication. Stay away from things of blood in them. And you stay in the fellowship of the saints. That's what we're supposed to do.
In Acts chapter 2, in Acts chapter 2 verse 37, it says, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. This is verse 37. And they said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promises unto you and your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Verse 40. And with many other words that he testified and exhorts saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Then they that glattery received his word were baptized. And that same day were added unto them about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. That's what we're in.
We're in the apostles' doctrine. We're not in some other book. We're not in some part of the pope that the pope wrote a book. We're following that.
We're following what the apostles did. We are doing the apostles' teaching and fellowship and breaking of bread and in prayers. We are praying church. And fear came upon every soul.
And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together and all things common. And sold their possessions and good and part of them to all men that every man had need. And they continually daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house to eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.
They will have one accord. They had a one accord. They had a one heart to do God's will. And they were praising God and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to the church, daily, such should be saved. So there was 120 saved on the day of Pentecost. And by that afternoon, there were 3,000 more people. And the Lord has added to the church since that time.
So we're going back and we're rehashing of why we're here and who we are and what we are all about is a congregation of people being ready to meet the Lord. Some of us are going to meet the Lord in our sleep. That's just a fact. Some of us are going to pass on before the Lord comes.
I'm talking globally. Some of us are going to be at work when the Lord comes. Some of us are going to be sleeping when the Lord comes. Some of us are going to be in a field.
Some of us are going to be laughing. Some of us are going to be driving. Some of us are going to be in airplanes. But the Lord is going to come.
So our belief, our lack of faith thinking, whether or not He's going to come is irrelevant. So if you're here tonight and you're here on Zoom and you're feeling that you feel lost or you're frustrated, I beseech you that you stop and reset course. Reset your spiritual GPS. Reset your thinking and go back and get things right with people.
You have wronged. Go back and get people, go back and ask for forgiveness. The people you've sinned against because this will cause a division, will cause lack of unity, it will cause frustration. If you're disappointed in the Lord, you can come and get it right before the Lord.
You can come and seek Him at the altar. You can come and talk to the Lord. You don't have to throw up the towel and say, it's no use. You have to go back from where you came from to go undo what you did.
You don't have to be stuck in this church. You just have to confess to the Lord. If you've wronged someone, you need to go back and get it right. You ought not to have it ought for years against people.
That's division, that's pettiness, and that's the devil. And he's got you in a net. And so he's got you in a snare. And he's got you so that you're stuck because you're not really free.
You may not be involved in sin in the sense of smoking and drinking and all those other things, but you're not free. Sin is dangerous and it's deceptive. I might add it's fatal. It's skull and crossbones.
If you remember as a kid, if you saw poison on a bottle, you saw a skeleton, you saw a skull with a skull and crossbones. You knew that that was deadly. If you saw a mouse poison, things like that, that's poison. Well, sin is just like that.
I know that sin is rampant in the society, and they're saying there's nothing wrong with it. But I'm letting you know that sin is fatal error. And if it doesn't kill you right away, it will kill you over time. It will erode your confidence in God.
It will erode your confidence and trust in people. It will make you suspicious of the man of God. It will make you suspicious of the mothers. It will make you suspicious of your brother and sister and to the point that you just come in and you go out and you're isolating yourself.
But the Bible says, the wages of sin are death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through our Jesus Christ, our Lord.
We have a way out of sin. Since we're here, we have not, we have no business going back into sin in any way since the Lord has freed us by the blood of Jesus Christ. He's freed us by His power. He's freed us by His anointing.
He's freed us by His word. So we can get to heaven from here. We can get to heaven from here. My wife and I were leaving about a couple weeks ago on a run in Aaron.
And she was going around the backyard to throw something out in the trash can behind the garage. And she was going by the garden. And she was startled. She went, whoo, she was really scared.
I thought there was someone there. And this is like two o'clock in the afternoon. And when she went in there, she said, there's something in the net. And she thought it was a bunch of animals that were fighting.
They were struggling in this thing. But what was struggling was a bird. And this bird was in this fine net, almost like a fishing line. But it's for your garden.
So it's very light. You just throw it over the top. And so we realized it was a bird. So I got my garden gloves.
And I got the gloves. And Catherine got some gloves. And my wife got some scissors. We're going to try to free the bird.
And so as we're there, I'm looking at the bird. And it's fighting. And it's fighting. And I'm trying to hold the wings down.
But the more it's fighting, the more it's entangled in this net. And the tangling is around its neck. And the wings, it's in the feathers. To the point at one point, I was just going to cut the net and let it go.
But that would have left it compromised and probably end up dying and not live. And so we were there for probably about 20 minutes, clipping this thing carefully and pulling the net. And this bird finally calmed down. And we realized we weren't going to snap the neck.
But the word bird was stuck. It was fighting. It was making a lot of noise. And it was really struggling.
It was entwined. And it became just to the point that if we didn't do it, we were supposed to do it, it would not be free. Sin is like that. It took three of us to cut the net while we held the bird.
It was like a surgical process because the netting was so fine. The line was around the bird's neck. But when we cut it free, it was free indeed. The Lord wants us to be free.
We could have freed some of the netting and kept it still attached, but it wouldn't compromised. The best thing was that we took the time to completely free the bird. The Lord wants us to take the time to be free. He's not interested enough of coming in and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
And just we go about our own business. Sister Kirby was testifying that after you receive the Holy Ghost, she came back to the altar. And this is a great place, this altar. This altar is open to everyone.
And I'm not talking tonight. I'm talking we come in here to pray. Find yourself alone with the Lord on the altar, telling him everything that's going on inside you so he can make you completely free. So he can take the time.
And you can spend the time with him so he can undo the things that have gone over a period of time that we've allowed to fester us. Envy, malice, bad attitude, lust. All the things that we don't really confess, we might not wear on our sleeve, but we want to get those things free. If we were not around that day, that bird would have died or have been destroyed by another animal.
If we would have left that, it would have been because you know how animals are. It would take full advantage of something in the net. The devil is like a headhunter. He is like a recruiter.
He's a headhunter because he wants your head. He's not fooling around with sin. So if he can get you entangled in sin, he's got where he wants you. He will mess with you until you surrender and walk out.
We don't want that. Because you can get to heaven from here. You just have to untangle yourself from sin. Untangle yourself from the things that are binding you that are not making you free.
And those things are the things that are going to come off through prayer. Those are the things that are going to come off when you repent unto the Lord. Those are the things that are going to come off that no one else is going to be around, that the Lord is going to be able to free you from those things. Because you're going to spend some time with him and be completely free as that bird was completely free.
When we cut the strings from that bird and I held it in my hand and I let it go, it didn't look back. It just went. And we had it all. We had pieces and netting all over the place.
And when the Lord freed us, there was a whole bunch of mess. When the Lord told us how to sin, out of alcohol and drugs and pride, all the, there was a whole bunch of mess around us. But the Lord allowed us to be free. The Lord allowed us to be just to be happy.
The Lord allowed us to be able to tell other people that the Lord made us free. Because that's what he wants. If the sun therefore shall make you free, you shall be free. Indeed.
That's what we want. That's truth. That's how you know that you can get to heaven from here. Because the truth will make you free.
God will speak truth unto you and tell you what's wrong with you. And you need to just address it. Say, Lord, it's me. It's me.
It's all he's talking about me. And not get defensive and not get mad. How can we know what's going on with you? It's not a coincidence what the Lord is doing.
He wants his people free. He wants us to be holy like him. Because he's holy. And we're supposed to be his children.
So we're supposed to be holy. We're supposed to be like him. Doesn't mean you're not going to make a mistake. Don't take it to the extreme.
But there's a holiness and a sanctification that he wants to do with us. And as we bathe ourselves in the Word of God and we meditate upon his Word. And we go to prayer. And we talk to him about everything.
Everything. Everything. And release ourselves so the Spirit can pray through us, so that the Spirit can heal our bodies, our infirmities, the things that are going on inside us. That's what the Holy Ghost does.
It will minister. It will help. There are things that are going on in us that we don't know what those are. But we have to release them.
And we need to pray in the Spirit. That is important. Just pray in the Holy Ghost. If you have the Holy Ghost and you've had it and you're not just praying and speaking in tongues, you are not getting your deliverance like you need to be young and old.
You need to pray in the power of Jesus Christ. When the Lord frees a person, it's with power and mighty deliverance. When we were in sin, we had no ability to free ourselves like that bird. That bird had no way.
The more that it fought, the more it got entangled. And the more that we fought in sin before the Lord got us, the worst things got. So we ought not to go back into the netting and the traps and the deception of sin, thinking that everything is okay. Because one day we did this.
But what about today? This is going to come. Whether we like it or not. And we want to go from heaven, from here to heaven.
We want to go from here to heaven. And I mean in the congregation of this church, we have dedicated ourselves unto the Lord. So the enemy is trying to take your satisfaction with him and try to turn that and try to make it so that you feel disgruntled against the Lord. Feel disgruntled against the church.
Feel disgruntled against my brother and sister. And try to use that as a wedge to push you away from the Lord. We have to understand that the enemy is a dirty fighter. For some, he's a buddy to some of us.
And for some people, they don't have good spiritual maturity to say the right things. So they hold things back and they're petty in their behavior. They're not mature in their words. They don't really choose the right words when they're talking to people and it offends them.
And at that point it makes people closed off and makes people not want to be around them. But we can be able to be free as the Lord will give us freedom. If we stand up and we ask the Lord to help us, he will help us. But we cannot hold it to ourselves any further.
We cannot allow the enemy to try to hold us back. We cannot allow that. In the eighth chapter of the book of Romans, it talks about the spirit, what it does. In verse 26 it says, likewise the spirit also help with our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought.
But the spirit itself help make its intercession for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered. And he searches the hearts and knows what is the mind of the spirit because he makes his intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Holy Ghost and the Lord is going to, he's going to, he's going to, he's involved in the Holy Ghost. He's involved in that prayer.
He's involved in the intercession. He wants us to go to him. He wants us to unload of what we're going through. Whether you think it's small or big, don't just walk it off.
If something pops into your mind or you offended someone, go to the Lord about it. Don't just harbor it. Don't just keep going. Don't keep saying or thinking that you can handle it.
No one can handle sin. No one can handle sin. If we can handle it, we can get ourselves out of what did Jesus Christ didn't need to come. Just like that bird, that bird could get out of that and that by itself, it would have.
But that the more it struggled, the worse it got. And with sin, the more you struggle, the worse it gets. The more you try to hide it, the worse things become. The more you try to go in the opposite direction, the more it haunts you.
Guilt is not a gift of the spirit. Guilt is not the gift of the spirit. If the sun therefore shall make you free, you shall be free. Indeed, you shall be free indeed.
Go back and get the power of Jesus Christ, but He's given you in the anointing. Go to the Lord in prayer. Go to the Lord in holding up your hands asking the Lord, please anoint my body. Lord, please anoint me.
Lord, speak through me again. Lord Jesus Christ, help me Lord to walk up rightly before you. There's no reason that we should not be free. He's made us that the way so that we have a way to become free.
We can be free if we want to. We can be free if we choose to. But don't let pettiness. Don't let yourself.
Don't let your flesh cause you not to want to be free in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're free tonight, just clap your hands. If you're free, if you want to be free in Jesus, clap your hands. We owe him everything.
He did it all for us. We have no business behaving like the ten lepers. They were walking dead men's. Saints, we were walking dead men and women.
And we were walking. We didn't know where death was. But when those lepers only one came back and that was a Samaritan. That one came back and it was a Samaritan.
He came back and he gave glory to God. How could you have a life threatening? You're going to die. You're a leper.
Your body, your skin is falling off. How can you have that and you be healed and not go back and give thanks to the Lord. How can we be delivered from sin? The Lord filling us with the Holy Ghost, taking away all the things that we went through.
He delivered us and how can we not give back and give him thanks. He deserves thanks. It's not about a show. We can come out here right now and ramp up all the music and get all the entertainers out here.
We can put a show on. We can make you all do whatever you want. But if it's not from the heart, what is that? Your thanks should be coming through the doorway.
Your thanks should be when you put your car in park. Your thanks should be when you wake up in the morning. Thank you Jesus. Your thanks should be Lord, I'm in my right mind.
Lord, I don't know what I was thinking. I did something wrong, but you caught yourself and you said, Lord, I'm sorry. That's huge. Out here, people are, it's sin wholesale.
They're trying to put marijuana in every town. Like everyone smoking it. We're living in Pottersville. If you ever saw the movie, Wonderful Life.
They said, Lord, show me in that prayer, you know, the angel out in the sea what it like if he wasn't born. Well, because his life didn't touch somebody or people, it turned into Pottersville. And it was sin times time. And that's what we're in right now.
That's why the Lord is coming. So we can, we can go to heaven from here. Saints be encouraged. We can go to heaven from here.
We can go to heaven from here. Don't you let the devil try to take your contentment? I've had people say to me that we're baptizing this church. They're no longer here.
They say, why are you still there? Why don't you start your own church? And I think in myself, what? Lord, you didn't call me to do that.
You know, I'm still struggling to do this. Why would I want, but it's stealing contentment trying to make me feel not content. And then about a woman who's not going to do this, I'm still struggling to do this. Why would I want, but it's stealing contentment trying to make me feel not content.
And then about a week later, the same, another person with the same comment, that's when I knew it was just a devil. You know, the Lord told me, if I want the Holy Ghost, he said, go with them. And when the Lord called me into the ministry, he gave me three dreams. Because I was afraid to tell the pastor, but I got three dreams to go tell him.
And that was like, knees knocking. And so I'm not ambitious to do anything like that. So I want my contentment. And so we ought to be content where the Lord has put us and called us.
You may not be everything that you think you have to be, but if you sit around here in the right spirit, you'll find something that the Lord will have you to do. There's a lot of people right now that are hurting. You can be one of those people sending a text message of a scripture to somebody that doesn't attend church here. You can help people by visiting them.
You can go into businesses that you go into and people need the Lord. They know what's going on, but you can talk to them about the Lord. I tried to, I tried to, I stopped to go into places and talk to people about the Lord. I tried to, I dropped off a Bible to them.
I tried to make myself available to them because I don't want my worth in the Lord to be just whatever this is. The Lord has called me to do something more. And that is, I'm just going to avail myself to do so. So one more thing that we need to discuss, and that's your prayers.
Your prayers matter. How you wait matters. We know there are windows in heaven. We also know that there are doors.
Because the doorpost shook. In Isaiah chapter six, we know there are doors. Jesus told us to ask. He told us to seek.
We shall find. He told us to knock. It shall be opened unto you. He told us to take every one that asks us to receive it.
And he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. He gave that an knowledgement. He gave that analogy for a purpose. In our prayer, we should be looking and expecting that the Lord is going to do it.
If you're having trouble with asking, if you're having trouble seeking, I encourage you to take your Bible with you in prayer and open that 11th chapter book of Luke. Or go in and, and, and, and, and, and, and Matthew and look in asking and receiving and knocking. And have it before you. And pray that prayer in the scripture.
And keep going and believe the Word of God until it clicks that he really will. He really will answer my prayer. He really will. I've been praying this thing for this thing a long time.
He's not going to hear me. But are you, are you knocking? Have you stopped knocking? It's annoying.
It's annoying to me. It's annoying to you. It's annoying. But if there are, if there is a door in heaven, and the Lord has given us that analogy, then how about a doorbell in heaven?
How do we not know? What is the doorbell? The doorbell is the knock. I'm just trying to just kind of peel it away a little bit.
Have you ever gone to a door to someone's house and they told you to come over? Or they're expecting you by this time in that time. And you ring the doorbell. And you hear the doorbell in some house and you can hear it reverberate through the house.
But you don't hear anything. Do you just leave? That's what kids do. It was a door dash or whatever.
I don't know where you would ring the doorbell and you would run away. Someone opens the door and there's no one there. You've never done that. No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding. I'm just going to tell you. But kids would do that. They would ring the doorbell and eventually come to the door.
That's why the doorbell is there. But what if you rang the doorbell and you heard the people inside? Would you just leave? If you know the Lord's going to answer the prayer.
If you know the Lord is telling you to pray. If you know the Lord has given you instruction to stay there and pray, are we going to walk away like he's not going to do it? It's instructional to the point that we need to keep knocking. He told us about the importunity in the early verse of Luke chapter 11 where the person came.
It was a friend of his that came to him at midnight. And he had a friend that surprised him and said, I have a friend here. He's on his journey and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within said, the answer and said, trouble me now.
The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed and I cannot rise and give thee. Back then when you shut the light off and everyone was asleep, you bolted the door. You put the wood on the other side of that door.
You weren't coming out until morning. There was no way you're going. Everyone's asleep. It's midnight now.
But this friend of his kept knocking. Kept knocking. Kept knocking. So if you're knocking and you can feel the anointing of God.
If you're knocking and you can feel the unction of the Holy Ghost, why would you stop knocking? Why would you stop seeking the Lord? Why would you just walk away? And you see people coming to a house and you hear the doorbell ring and you hear them say, I'll be right there.
I've had this happen. You ring the doorbell ring. I'll be right there. I'm coming.
You can hear them in another part of the house. I'm coming. Do we just, we're expecting them to open that door. We're expecting that person to open that door.
How much more so with the Lord? When the Lord is saying, do this. Seek me. Knock.
Ask. Keep on knocking because I'm going to do it. We don't have any expectation because we don't see how the Lord's going to do it. We have to go before the Lord in prayer.
We need to be able to be in prayer before the Lord. And we need to go there in confidence that He's going to do it. And I say to ask and it shall be given. You seek and you shall find knock.
It shall be opened unto you. It says everyone that asks us receive it. And he that seek and find it. And to him that knock it shall be opened.
The door is going to be opened. But will you be there when it opens? Some of us have big prayer. Some of us have big needs.
Some of us have one big thing, but it's a real big thing. Are we going to walk away? Are we going to act like the Lord's not going to do it? Some of us need healing.
Some of us need a miracle. Some of us are praying for family members. Some of us are praying for husbands that are not saved. Praying for wives.
Praying for family members. Praying for people that have lost their mind. When do we stop? When did the Lord tell us to stop praying?
We need to keep on praying. Shukamashangodakadah. Keep on praying. Keep on praying.
Keep on praying. Keep on praying. Keep on praying. Second Timothy chapter 4 verse 7.
You see these quotes all around. It talks about I fought a good fight and I finished my course. But that's as far as it goes. It says I have fought a good fight and I finish my course.
But the last clause of that scripture is I have kept the faith. That's what I'm talking about tonight. If you're here you can make it to heaven from here. We are contending for the faith that was delivered unto the apostles.
This salvation experience we need to contend for. There are people sprinkling. They're telling people you don't have to receive the Holy Ghost. That you don't need to be baptized.
You don't need to repent. You can do whatever you want to do. And you're still saved. That's not true.
That's not biblical. We have people all around us and you can see it in Christian and now that people are just taking down and are having church anyhow. But when the Lord cracks the sky they're not going. Not because I said it.
It's because they did not stay in the faith. They walked away from the faith. They did not keep the plumb line. They did not keep the faith.
So he said I wrote and I exhort you. That's what I'm doing right now. I'm exhorting you. That you keep the faith and earnestly contend for the faith that was delivered unto you.
We're in a praying church. We're in a place of blessing. We're also in a place right now of lockdown and pandemic. And we're doing the best that we can.
So things aren't like they used to be at this point. They will go back to a place where we will have a little bit of normalcy. But there's no excuse for us not to be able to come out unto prayer on a Saturday. I'm not picking at you but I'm trying to stir your heart in your mind.
Where is your strength? Where is your hope? You need to pray. There are people on the prayer list that we need to pray for.
There are people that need to be healed. There are people that need to be delivered. These prayers are miracles from the Lord. I have people asking me, can I put my name on the prayer list?
I was going down to a mirror parkway in the middle of August. And it was an attorney that's a partner at one of the law firms. And I got this text message that says, please pray for me. I've been giving him the podcast and scriptures and I would see him when I worked at the bank.
But I was sending him this. He came to Iron Sharp and Iron one day. We were in here testifying in the back about receiving the Holy Ghost. He walked in here and looked at us.
This church you go to? I'm telling you that story. When I was going to a mirror parkway, I said, please pray for me. I'm going to have emergency surgery, surgery, my whole back.
He did all the vertebrae, everything. He couldn't get out of bed to do anything for himself. Someone tried to help him. He still couldn't function on his own.
That's how he's not in bad health. But his back, everything shut down. He said, please pray for me. The text was like this long.
And I continued praying, praying, sending him scriptures, stayed in touch with him. We finally said, can we put your name on the prayer list? He said, please. He glistens in water town.
But I don't know what's going to happen. He goes to a Pentecostal church. But it's not like this. It's not like this because I saw, I see what's going on.
This, everything is dressed down Friday, but it's Monday through Sunday. Everything's all dressed down. It's not really so much of how the clothing is, but how your respect is towards the Lord. I want to let you know that you need to come to prayer and you need to be able to get your mind off yourself.
So take the piece of paper that we have put the names upon, prayerfully and intercede upon those people. The pastor says, and sometimes he says, pray for yourself. That's a great time to take a pen and write down for people that you've been talking to. That's a great way to have a list and continue doing that.
There are people that have been baptized in this church. They have not received the Holy Ghost. They only come to service. They're by sign services over there going.
We need to pray for those people. The Holy Ghost needs to fall and just fall on them and saturate them and move them and go into the morning. So the point that they don't know what's going on, the new conference class, we need to pray for those people. We're so spoiled.
We've been saved for a while and now we don't need all that, but they need it. They need what we have. They need what we experienced. I want to be nice and I am.
I'm going to say what the Lord says. Turn with me to Jeremiah 16 because we're not going to be like everybody else. We're not going to not pray. We're not going to not fast.
We're not going to not fellowship. We're not going to not testify. We're going to read our Bibles. We're going to pray.
We're going to expect miracles. We're going to pray for people. We want people to be saved the right way. I'm not so happy about someone shaking, but they don't have the Holy Ghost.
I'm not so happy about someone speaking tongues, but they're still the foul spirit. I want people to be fully delivered. I want people to have the real genuine power to gift to the Holy Ghost. Jeremiah 16 says, Thus say the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths.
Where is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls. I'm not going to leave the latter part because that was Judah's response. We are not Judah. We are the apostolic church that Jesus Christ wants us to be here.
That's why he's established to be here so souls can be freed. Souls can receive the-