Going the Distance

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Well, praise the Lord is preaching time. And we're going to pick up where we left off. I do want to give a shout out. Do we have any veterans in the house? All right. For those watching online, we salute you and we thank God for your service. I got something on the sign that says thanks veterans for going the distance pun intended because that's the name of our sermon series. Going the distance. Amen. And we talked the last couple of weeks about how the Lord went the distance for us and so that we could go the distance for Him. And we're going to continue that theme this morning and let it just go back to the text.

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Core text, Second Kings chapter number 13. And we will review what we've covered so far and then give you part three of the review of this series. I know it's taken me a while to review what we're going to cover in detail, but I promise you these truths we do not want to just pass over and quickly forget. These need to be ingrained into the very fabric of our church culture so that we can have what it takes with God's strength and God's help and determination to go the distance until Christ comes or calls us home because church, as much as I'd love to give you sunshine and roses about the future of our country and the plight of the church at large,

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it's only going to get more difficult before Jesus returns. And we need to have more strength in our soul than what we have anywhere else in our lives. And so that's what this is about, is strengthening us for the days ahead because we're going to need it. Amen. And not to be a prophet of doom, but just to just to I read my Bible and I see the headlines and they're matching up pretty good. And the things that are going on in this world were predicted thousands of years ago, hundreds and thousands of years ago. And we may not be surprised, and we also need not fear because the Lord is still on the throne. Amen. And so we want to

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pray that the Lord will use this not only to help us to have the strength to maintain, but to have the strength to make progress in the kingdom of God and in our walk with Him. Amen. And how many of you know it takes spiritual discipline to make progress in your walk with God. It's not going to happen by default. It's not just going to take place. You've got to be deliberate and intentional. I made a post on Facebook this morning, you know, we'll go read it later. This world has figured out how to make money off of us. And what they do is they find out every need that man has that is never satisfied and they sell that. And many people fall for it.

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And people just go to feed the cravings of the flesh which are never satisfied. And so you can have a repeat customer till that customer dies and then the next one gets in line. But when Jesus enters a picture, He said, if you come to me, amen, He that come with them to me, I will in no wise cast out. But He also said, if you drink of the water that I give you, you'll have a well of water springing up in everlasting life and you'll never thirst again. And so when you get hooked up to Jesus, the things of this world don't satisfy you anymore. And guess what happens then, the world system, if you don't need the world system,

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the world system will decide they don't need you. So what are you going to do when the world rejects you because you reject the need for them to survive? You see, we have got to become weaned off of our dependency to feed this flesh. And we need something stronger, something that won't break deep down inside of us. Amen. No matter what comes our way in this crazy world, that we're going to stand for God because Jesus stood for us. And that's what we want to talk about is going the distance for the Lord.

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And we can't do it without Him. We desperately need Him. So stand with me for just a second. Second Kings chapter 13, we'll read these verses again. And verse 17 through 19, second Kings 13. And He said, open the windows eastward, and He opened it. Then Elisha said, shoot, and He shot and He said, the arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria, for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou hast consumed them. Did a little footnote right here. God will speak of things that are not as though they were,

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because He's God and He can do that. So just remember that when God speaks the perfect word. Verse 18. And He said, take the arrows, and He took them, and He said unto the King of Israel, smite upon the ground, and He smote thrice and stayed. Man of God was wroth with them and said, thou shouldest have smitten five or six times. And then hast thou smitten Syria, till thou hast consumed it. Whereas now, thou shalt smite Syria, but thrice, thanking you and receiving the presence of the Lord. Lord, I need you this morning. Would you touch me, Lord, that I can convey

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the principles that you so embedded in my spirit, Lord? I can't preach on this enough. I can't articulate it powerfully enough. I don't have enough time of the day, Lord. So I pray that as we navigate these scriptures and discover these truths, Lord, that You would help me to do that. These lips of clay are too weak to speak such wonderful truths out of Your word. So God, would You anoint my lips of clay? And it would not be me speaking, but it would be the Lord. And God, may it find lodging in our hearts, may it find fruit on our lips,

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and may it find work in our hands and feet for the kingdom of Christ and His glory. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Well, you've been here before. And we talked about the four possible reasons that this king stopped. And we talked about that he may have underestimated the significance of his actions. Number one, he number two may have been satisfied with partial victory. And number three, the past defeats in his nation's history may have limited his expectations. And number four, he may have lacked determination to continue. And that's why he stayed.

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And some of this is speculation, but it really makes a lot of sense when you think about it, doesn't it? And we talked about how we can experience those same kinds of thought patterns that might cause us to fall short of the journey that God wants us to finish. We want to be like Paul the Apostle, though, where he said, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. And that's where we want to be. Ain't it, church? Never give up. Never bow down. Never cower to this world. Never cower to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

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Always, the Bible says, walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Keep your eyes wide open all the way around you because we are living in the evil day. And the Bible says, having done all to stand. And I'm not so much interested in finding out how many more people can start with us. I'm interested in finding finishers, aren't you? And Lord, anything, I want to be one of those finishers. I'll never forget when I had a brief moment of Bible college before we got pregnant with our first son. And I had to give up my pursuit of Bible college and start raising my family.

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But that doesn't mean I'm not being in the word, by the way. But I'll never forget what the Bible college professor that I was under at that time, the story that he told me, he said he had a wall of preachers all the way around his office where he studied. And he said every once in a while, there was an empty spot. And whenever a new prospective pastor that comes to study would come to his office, they would always inevitably look up and ask him, what are those empty spots? And he said, oh, those are the preachers that started in ministry but didn't finish. And my challenge to you, young man, is don't be a starter, be a finisher. And that stuck with

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me, Brother Lester. I can't quit. Quit is not in me because quitting wasn't in Jesus. And Jesus is in me. Somebody say amen this morning. And I'm going to tell you what, if you'll get hooked up to the Lord, you might want to quit in your flesh. But the spirit greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world. And that even includes my old sorry flesh. Amen. He's greater than me. And we got to lean on the greater one. And that's what we're talking about this morning. And so then we talked about the identity of God's people. If you remember last week, we talked about that it represented our faith.

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We looked at Reuben, we'll talk more about that later. It represented our fellowship. That was a reference to God. We looked at our family, which was a reference to Manasseh. And how that it's important for us to know who we are and whose we are if we're going to go the distance. Look, I could understand if you were working for a political party and that political party disappointed you and so you said I quit. Can I get an amen? I can understand working for a man and that man disappoints you and you say, I can't walk with that man no more. But we're talking about serving the perfect one,

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Jesus Christ. We're talking about the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We're talking about a flawless savior and master who would quit working for him. But I had to report to you. The Bible says in the last days, perilous times shall come and the Bible said that there'll be a great falling away. Brother Lester, they're dropping out like flies. Amen. They're dropping out of the race because the things of this world have consumed them and Satan has blinded their eyes and they don't understand what they're walking away from. They're walking away from truth. They're walking away from life. They're walking away from Jesus,

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but give me a Peter that said, Lord, to whom shall we go for thou only has the words of life. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be one of those found falling away from the church and falling away from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're listening by way of my voice on radio or internet right now and you're sitting in your living room and you know you're supposed to be at the house of God and you know you're supposed to be on the front lines for Jesus. I'm a preacher still bold enough to tell you that you just need to get right with God and realize what you walked away from wasn't other people. If you're out of his church,

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you're out of his will because it's not his will for you to sit cold and indifferent. The Bible says for us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, and it seems like the manner of some is the popular manner anymore these days. That church is no longer a priority, but I'm looking for a few faithful folks that'll say, you know what, the church may have her problems, but she's still the best flag of flying. Can somebody give God some glory for the bride of Christ this morning? Give her my hand clap her praise and help me preach a little bit this morning.

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I'm not going to give up the ship called the church and neither should you. Amen. You say, well, but if you wouldn't even know what I knew about that church, you wouldn't go. Well, does that give you an excuse to sit at home and not even find the church that you can plug up with? Come on, somebody. We need not give up and we talked about how that our identity reminds us of why we are here and who we are here to serve. His name is Jesus, and the Bible says whatsoever you do, do heartily as the Lord and not unto men. The second thing we talked about was our inheritance,

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and we talked about the work, our work that he entrusts to us, our witness that we are we are commanded to maintain in this world and our wellness, and that, of course, was tied to the regions that these tribes were in. And so, God, you're a member of the family of God. You're entrusted with things to do for him. Have you inventoried your life lately and asked yourself this question, are you being responsible with the inventory that God has entrusted to your care? You say, I may not have much. God ain't worried about what you don't have. He's wanting to ask you what you did with what you had. All Moses had was a staff in his hand.

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40 years wandering in the wilderness, and the Lord said, what is in that hand? And he showed him, and the Lord used that staff in Moses hand, and he'd lift that over the Red Sea, and that thing would split. He lifted over the Nile River and turned to blood. You hear what I'm saying? It don't matter what little you have. It matters how big God is. And if you'll put your little into God's hands, God can work miracles with your little bit. And I'm preaching to a church that may be a remnant church, my friend, but a remnant is no small stuff. Not when God's on your side. If God be for us,

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who can be against us? We need not quit. We have God on our side. Amen. I'm going to get excited here in a minute. So we have an inheritance, and then the other thing that I want to review this morning is, this is where we stopped off last week, is the advancement. Once you know who you are, and who's you are in Christ, and once you recognize an inventory, what God has entrusted to your care might be gifts, it might be talents, it might be resources, it might be a calling, but you find out what God has called you to do, and you get plugged in. Now it's time, church, to advance God's kingdom for his glory.

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What are you going to do with what you have? And opportunity is as much an asset as anything. The devil don't care how long you live, as long as you don't live in the days you have. You're going to live for the Lord? You're going to make it count, or you're going to get sidetracked by every whim, and every wish, and every opinion, and every distraction that the devil throws your way, and gets you so hung up over here that you lose sight of the finish line. Paul again said, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He said, I'm after something, I know what I'm after, and I can't let anyone deter me from that finish

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line. My finish line is, I want to leave a legacy for my children. I want to leave a legacy for my grandchildren, and I want to leave a legacy for my church. I don't have much to offer, but I have the Lord, and that's more than enough. I offer you Jesus, and silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee, and I hope that you're looking for what I have to give you, because if I just give you another dollar, you'll spend it by this time tomorrow, and you'll be coming back for another dollar that's going to disappoint you. But if you'll get hooked up to the Jesus I'm giving you, He will be in you that well of water springing up

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in the everlasting life, and you'll find your satisfaction in Him, amen. We got to quit looking for satisfaction in the temporal, and look for satisfaction in Him. That's my aim in life. What's your aim? Are you wanting to make a difference? John, I remember as a teenager I was your age, and John my youth pastor, he's a hero of the faith in my book. He would make statements that would fascinate me. He would speak blessings over my life. He would look at a poor boy that was raised in [place name unclear], North Carolina in a little 24 by 24, tin-roof hut with no siding, just a ply board for siding for many years, just a poor house.

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Two bedrooms, one bath, one long kitchen and living room together. It was just a shack, Brother Lester. That's where me and my two brothers were raised, and we grew up poor. And Brother John who said if you, God's not looking for those who are available, or able rather, He's looking for those who are available. And I never felt able, but I sure was available for the Lord. I said, Lord, if you'll use me like He said, then I surrender to you. And I'm going to tell you right now, it's the best decision I ever made, and John was right. And I tell you the same thing He told me. He's not looking for those

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who are well qualified, but He's looking for those He can qualify because they're willing to surrender to His will for their lives. And if we'll surrender to what He's calling us to, He'll see us through. You don't have to figure everything out. He's already got it figured out. Can you just trust Him? See, He makes it so easy, but we try to pick up the whole burden when all He's asking for is simple childlike faith. And when we get this way, we can advance the kingdom of God. I say we, He can advance His kingdom through us. Better way to put it. Well, 2 Corinthians 4, 13 reads this. We have the same spirit of faith according as it is

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written. I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak. The first thing that we need, Brother Lester, if we're going to advance God's kingdom, is we need faith. We need faith. Did you hear what Paul said? I have, he said we also believe and therefore speak. Whether you believe it or not, you say what you believe generally speaking, unless you're lying. And some people believe their own lies. So what's on your lips? Is it faith or is it fear? Is it trusting God or is it analyzing everything explaining why it'll never work? God's looking for faith. He said, when I return, shall I find faith in the earth?

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And I don't pretend to know all of God's sovereign will for specific prayers that don't get answered. But I'll submit to you this one truth that I believe more prayers will be answered if we had more faith. That's still ultimately up to God. But I do believe that faith is a factor that we need not quickly dismiss. I think sometimes we're too willing to ignore the fact that we may not be trusting God like we're supposed to be. And so I say that we need to believe God and then we need to say so. Just like the redeemed of the Lord should say so, I believe those who trust in God should be willing and bold enough to say that

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out loud so the devil and everybody else around him can hear, I'm going to believe God. You remember Paul the Apostle? He said, Sirs, I believe God. That was on that ship. By the way, Paul said, there's a storm coming. It's going to be rough. We better not sail right now. And the captain said, we're going to sail. So they sailed and they got in a storm and it got pretty rough. Paul prayed, God give him a vision. We're going to be all right. Everybody's going to be safe. He said, Sirs, I believe God. Can you believe God when it looks like the ship is fixing to sink? This is a good message for us this morning church. And I don't

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know how many other pastors may watch this later and you may feel like your church is about to sink because you've experienced the pain of the great falling away. Amen. But let me tell you something, the church is going to make it because the church is bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. Don't you give up preacher. Don't you quit. Remember we're going to make it and you got to have faith in your soul to say, like Paul said, in the midst of a storm that threatened their very existence Sirs, I believe God and I believe this book and you need to believe this book and you need to pray that God from a move from your lips, any doubt, any confusion, any worry, any

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anxiety, any stress, any human logic that contradicts what God says he can do with people that trust him and just have nothing but a child like faith and keep believing God. Amen. So we got to have faith. Romans 10 10 says for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. With the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Faith needs to be in the heart. Faith rest on God's word and not on the power of positive thinking either, by the way. We're not talking about ignorant optimism. We're not talking about just, well, if you just be positive, everything will work out. You need to have something strong to stand on besides just an

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emotion or an opinion or a philosophy of man. It better be anchored in Jesus because he's the way and the truth and the life. When you anchor your faith in Jesus, faith needs an object in his name to Jesus. We got to believe. Am I making any sense? Sure. Say amen. But not only that, we just read with the mouth confession made unto salvation. Of course, that's appropriately applied to those who receive Christ as savior, become born again. But the same is also true that if we believe we need to proclaim. Isaiah 57 19 says I create the fruit of the lips. This is the Lord speaking. I create the fruit of the lips. If the fruit of your lips,

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let me put it this way. If you speak the word of God, then the fruit of God's word will be created by God himself. Let me say that again. If you speak the word of God, then God will produce the fruit of your lips because it's speaking his truth. Did he not say that his word would not come unto him void, but it would accomplish what he sent it to accomplish. Then why are we not saying more of what God said instead of what we have to say? God creates the fruit of the lips. But that's just not an open-ended invitation that you can just blab and grab whatever you

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want to visit. There is a blab and grab generation today. They twist the scripture and they try to obligate God. Well, I'm believing for this, and God, I'm going to obligate you to this, and they neither know the Lord nor his word. But they're just hungry for the appetites of the flesh. They want to be healthy, wealthy, and feeling great. It's the every day is Friday mentality. It's this false, prosperity gospel doctrine that has eroded the church today, where people have got this idea that if you really got a close walk with God, you'll be healthy, wealthy, and feeling great. And if you're poor, you probably did something to make God angry.

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If you're struggling to pay your bills, you must have a character flaw, and they never factor in hell coming up against somebody and putting them in such despair that if God don't rescue them, they'll never be able to pull themselves out. Like Job, he was a perfect man and upright in all his ways, and God let his whole world turn upside down for a season. He went bankrupt and everything, and all his friends were sitting around him judging and saying, yeah, you got hidden sin in your life. And then, of course, God vindicated him in the end, didn't he? Be careful what you say about those going through a storm. You have no idea what God's doing with

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them, for them, and through them. He may be fixing to teach you a lesson that you didn't see coming. You better just learn to love people and trust God with them. Let God be their judge. Well, I wouldn't give to so-and-so. All they ever do is ask for a handout. I'll tell you, all we ever do is ask God for a handout, but he still keeps giving to us. What if God treated us like beggars? Well, guess what? We are beggars. We were beggars when we met him, and I'm still begging him for grace, mercy, and compassion. And the funny thing is, I don't really have to beg him. I just have to believe him. Amen. But God is so good,

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and who are we, after having been extended such grace, to turn around and treat others like scum of the earth when it could be the grace of God that he wants to extend it in through me to break my pride down so that I can actually help someone instead of making their stay in their condition worse, because I chose to be a part of their problem instead of a solution. And so, what we end up with, and I'm talking about proclaiming our faith, what we end up with instead of speaking a blessing over somebody needed in the name of the Lord, we speak a curse over them. What we're proclaiming is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the gospel

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of American ideology. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. I had to, you should too. I ain't going to help you a dime. You see what I'm saying? The Laodicean church, rich, increased with goods. We have need of nothing, but there's a whole world right around us that has need of everything. But as long as we're good, as long as our bills are paid, as long as we're healthy, don't y'all don't bother us. Just let us stay in our little bubbles. We got to proclaim not our goodness, not our method of success. And this is what we like to do. We like to put people in our classes and we like to give them unsolicited advice when we never took the

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time to understand them. We never took the time to ask them questions to understand how they got there and nor how we can help them get into a better place. We just make quick assumptions because we don't have time to be bothered and usually they're inconclusive and then usually they're way off base and very, very judgment instead of proclaiming the gospel, we're proclaiming all other things to disconnect ourselves from the obligation of proclaiming the gospel to whosoever will. This is stout, y'all. And what this does, when you get this philosophy in your spirit, you don't, you won't be the kind of church, and I'm not saying we are, I'm just speaking in

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general. This is just something, let's call this a caution when we start initiating our visitation outreach. This is a caution to us to not pick the best houses to go to. They look like they make the most money and they look like they're the most successful. We need those kinds of people in our church while we're neglecting the poor and the outcast, but we also don't need to focus all on the poor and neglect the rich because they both need Jesus. The philosophy is proclaim the gospel always at all times to every man. There's no respecter of persons with God, but I will say this, the destitute, the hungry, the naked, they're a lot quicker to respond to the

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gospel in the hope of Jesus, and God could just assume raise up a church out of the scum as he could out of a rich house or a rich neighborhood, and I'm telling you we just need to be busy, not about proclaiming our goodness or our expectations and grievous burdens to put on people, expecting them to meet certain standards before they can fellowship with us. No, come one, come all to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'd love to see a church filled with a mixed group of people in age and category and social life. I'd love to see the millionaires sit beside the pauper and both of them shout on the victory and thanking Jesus for the goodness of God. I'd love to see the black

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and the white and the yellow and the orange or whatever colors they are nowadays. Amen. I'd love to see them all come in here, and we're flying under the bloodstain banner. We're worshiping rather under the bloodstain banner of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's the ground is level at the foot of the cross, and we're about one message, and that message is Jesus came for all of us, and if we believe the gospel like we say we do, and we believe this the last and best hope for mankind, and we believe this is the only way to salvation, then why are we not proclaiming it more to this generation? If you believe they're going to die and spend eternity in hell,

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why would you not, and why would I not, mention Jesus to my neighbor? You see, if we believe it, we need to proclaim it, and then the last thing is we need to practice it. We need to practice it. Faith through obedience, James 2 17, even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. He said, you say you have faith. Show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works. Talk is cheap if it's just lip service. Jesus spoke of those scribes and Pharisees, said that they served him with their mouth, and honored him with their lips, but their heart was far from him. Everybody knows church lingo,

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and they, Brother Lester, anybody can get spiritual for one hour a week in Sunday morning church. Put on the biggest faking facade you ever seen in your life. They'd have you just as convinced they're as spiritual as Billy Graham was, but then you'd follow them around for a week, and they're ate up with the works of the flesh. They don't have a tender heart. They're jaded and bitter and angry and frustrated constantly, and the only time they mention Jesus is when they had to put on that plastic face on Sunday morning. That's not the kind of Christian I want to be, and that shouldn't be the kind of Christian you

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would allow yourself to become, and I hope you haven't. I'm talking about being the real deal, and I'm talking about your faith being backed by your works. What am I talking about? More than a Sunday morning routine, I'm talking about living your life to the glory of God. I'm talking about an active and vibrant church, and I thank God for this church. We're going through some spiritual growing pains. We're all being stretched. We're all being challenged, and yes, sometimes it hurts, but there's one old saying that it ain't a Bible verse, but I believe I can find the principle in the Bible. No pain, no gain. You think about that. If you want to be in

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physically fit, let me just preach to myself. If I want to be more physically fit, I'm going to have to go through the pain of exercise. It ain't going to happen by itself. I can't sleep this fat off. Amen, and I'm afraid that the church is kind of like the prophet Eli. He became fat off of the food as the high priest. Y'all remember the story, and he fell over backwards and broke his neck and died. Just a fat preacher. He was too lazy and too apathetic to even recognize the voice of God anymore. It took him three times whenever Samuel came to him three times, and you called. The third time, it finally dawned on, I know what's going on. I just wondered at that moment

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if Eli remembered, ah, ah, it's been so long that I heard God's voice like that. It took me this long to recognize that he was speaking to Samuel. Because if you remember, his sons were in sin, sleeping with harlots at the front of the church, and he wouldn't address the sin. He wouldn't hold him accountable. He just lived and got fat. He had faith on his lips, but not in his actions. He could talk the talk, but he wasn't walking the walk, and he died. A terrible death. I believe that's where the word Ichabod came from, isn't it? Am I getting that mixed up? I don't remember. I'll look at him and come back with it.

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Tell me, Lester, maybe. You know what the word Ichabod means? The glory has departed. Whether it came out of that story or not, I can tell you this, when we have faith, but we don't have works, the glory does depart. What's fascinating to me about this is there are a thousand million church growth strategy books that you can buy today with any kind of activity, any kind of program, any kind of music, any kind of cultural emphasis, anything that you can imagine. And every one of them has got a price tag. Every one of them, if you'll buy in, this should work. And I've read reviews of pastors who tried multiple church programs and nothing worked for them,

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and they were disappointed. They're tired of the wisdom of men, and for that, what happens a lot of times is a church, God will start blessing that church, Brother Chris, and they'll start seeing some growth because of what God showed that church to do. Then they'll try to replicate their strategy for the next church, and maybe it works in some places and some places it don't, because every church has its own struggles, every church has its own dynamics, every church has its own strengths and weaknesses, and what works for one may not work for the other, but we try to create a cookie-cut process that if we'll do it this way and do this and check this box off and do that,

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it should work just fine. And we have forgotten the art of walking by faith and asking the Holy Ghost, Lord, what would thou have me to do today? Sometimes I think we need to throw away our church growth strategies and go back to the book of Acts and go back to the Gospels and say, okay, Lord, I want to be a New Testament Bible-believing Bible-preaching Bible-practice in church, and I want to throw away man's wisdom for just a little while, and I'll see how good you can make it for us. And listen to me, church growth strategy is more than just following a certain procedure and methodology and hoping that it works. Church growth is when we grow

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spiritually first, and then God has a foundation upon which He can entrust to us more. Now, if we will grow in our faith and grow in our works, our works being produced by our faith, then God can bless the fruit of our hands as well as the fruit of our lips. And I just believe that the church is worth investing in by faith. I believe it's worthy of investing our time, our talent, and our treasures. Somebody say amen to that. And if we will just go all in for Jesus and produce works that are based on our faith in God to bless, then I believe God will certainly bless. And the last thing is practice it.

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Faith through obedience, James 2.17, even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone, you see our hearts believe our lips proclaim our lives obey. Can I say that again? Our hearts believe our lips proclaim our lives obey. So simply put, we need to keep responding to God until the assignment is complete. The only thing about God is He doesn't, He'll speak of things that are not as though they were. You know, Jesus taught His disciples that He would show them things to come. I'll never forget when God led me to to Thomson, Georgia from Louisville, Mississippi. I got the call from Brother Chris Miles.

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When did you the one that called me that day? God had already spoken to me about two or three years before that, that the place I was at was a holding place. That one day I'd be called. I kid you not, that was the work I put in my spirit. And I hung on to that for two or three years knowing that I was on a temporary assignment, but I didn't know how long it will be. So I tried to be faithful. I was going to be there the rest of my life until God called for me. Got the call that day. I was running a business, helping run a business as a comptroller. And I was a man of many hats for that company. I answer calls all day long,

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nights and weekends, holidays, and I usually declined unrecognized phone numbers. But for whatever reason, I picked up the phone. I just so happened to pick up the phone against my better judgment. Wouldn't you know God was in that phone call? I went to praying about it. I went to our director of missions and I poured out my heart to him. I said, I want to seek the Lord on this. I don't want to miss God. Would you help me pray? And we had lunch together and he prayed a simple prayer of faith that day. He said, Lord, Brother Gary is going to a missions conference tonight. I pray that if this is your will, that you'd have a word for him tonight

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that would confirm his direction. I went to that mission conference that night at Amy's father's church and they had a, I actually didn't know it was a missions conference. I thought it was going to be another Wednesday night service, but he had a missionary come. And that missionary is preaching about Paul following the direction of the Lord into new ministry. And it's like the Holy Ghost said, are you listening to me? I'm in this. And God gave me peace about it. We came here. got voted in unanimously. And one of the ways that I know that I'm right where God called me is because hell has followed

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tooth and toenail. The devil lay off easy on you as long as you're out of God's will. The devil lets you just, you know, here's my point on all this. God said, go to Thompson. He didn't tell me all that would follow. He didn't tell me if it was going to explode. He didn't tell me if it was going to go through some tough times. I didn't know any of that. All I knew is I was supposed to be here and try to be faithful. And can I tell you something today? When God leads you into territory unknown, he's not going to give you all the details all the time.

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He'll speak to you of things that come, but he will reveal to things to you as you need to know them. We know in part and we prophesy in part until that which is perfect or whole has come. And then you'll no longer need to know the parts because you got the full picture. But until that day, we keep following him one commandment at a time, one step at a time, one faith at a time, one faith journey at a time. Your today's are tied to your tomorrow's, and we need to remember that if we're going to go to the distance, we need to keep trusting the word that God spoke to us from the beginning because God can't lie.

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Now, has the devil come to me and try to get me to doubt that I ever heard God to start with? Oh, yes. But every time, and I do mean every time, it's almost like I can't even get in my prayer closet quick enough to talk to God about where he's already arguing with me and saying, now, if you come to talk me out of this, you come for the wrong reason. You got to have enough faith in what God said that you stay the course and finish the fight of faith. And I'll close on this thought, faith is a fight. That's why the Bible calls it the fight of faith. What who's fighting over what?

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The devil's fighting over your faith. He don't want you to believe God. He wants you to believe anything but God. He wants to give you every reason to doubt God. He wants to give you every reason to doubt what God's doing. He wants to give you every reason to follow your own logic, to follow the whims of the world. But God forbid that we become so fluid that we're tossed about by every wind of doctrine and every influence that comes into our lives. They that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. That's the promise I'm holding on to, Brother Lester. If God planted you,

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you know what's beautiful about that text? That tree is planted through every season. Winter, summer, fall, spring, they all come. Storms, sunshine, rain, drought, but those that be planted in the house of the Lord. And that's what I thank God for me and coming. And this is what Brother Howie said, I've planted my flag. Praise God. You know why God plants you? Because he wants you to grow roots. When you grow roots in the Word of God, you'll stand the test of time. You'll stand the test. And what we need to do is pray for others that the the deceiver,

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I'm talking about the enemy, the devil, as a roaring lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour. He's a sower of discord among brethren. He is an accuser of the brethren. He's the one who tries to get us thinking incorrectly about each other and dividing us so that he can conquer us. We need to pray that our brothers and our sisters in Christ, some are here, some are not here today, but they should be here. We need to pray that God will clear the fog so that we can all hear the voice of the shepherd, which is leading it in a greener pasture in still water. Stay the course. Fight the good fight of faith.

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Trust God. Believe God. And if we'll do that until Christ calls our number, we should be found faithful serving, faithful working, never give up, never quit, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. I know my labor is not in vain. I don't have the evidence to prove it yet, but I know my labor is not in vain in the Lord because the Bible said so. But I guess I do have a little bit of evidence. Our church has some evidence. Yesterday, seven people made a profession of faith or the last two days in the Lord, whether they ever join our

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church or not, we'll see them in heaven. I say that's a win, don't you? Hallelujah. But I'll challenge us with this. We need faith. We need to proclaim it and we need to do it. Next Saturday, if you can join me, I know you may have some schedules and some of you may not be able to come. And I know it's kind of a last minute thing, but I'm one of those guys that the Lord puts in on my heart. I want to follow him at the expense of being criticized. And I hope that I don't get criticized. But if you can make it, if you can't make it, but you want to be a part of visitation, I want you to just send me an email.

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Everybody in here, I think, is getting an email from me. At least most of you are. Say, I'm interested, but this is my schedule. And if we can work together, I'll help you figure out a way that we can work together to reach this community with Christ based on your schedule. I have Saturday mornings that work good for me. It may not work good for you, but I think all of us should participate in some kind of way. Maybe some could be the prayer warriors during the seasons of visitation. Maybe some can be the ones that are a fly on the wall. They'll rattle. I used to go around every Wednesday night with John knocking

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on doors and inviting people to church and giving them the gospel. And John taught me how to knock on somebody's door, be polite, be courteous, be professional looking. And he taught me how to open up the conversation, kind of like a sales pitch a little bit. Brother Chris, you're looking for something in the yard that you can compliment and you try to break the ice a little bit. And he taught us how that we could then open up a little conversation about church. And we're not here to take you from your church or if you're in church, but we would like to know that if you died today, would you know for sure that you would go to heaven? And we had opened up

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with that heavy question and it would open up a conversation immediately. And John is the one who taught me how to do that. And I remember when I turned 18, he turned me loose because I've been in it so long, I knew how to do it. And I took a group myself, I think it was the first night I did it and we visited Robie Blevins. Never forget his name. He was an old man with an oxygen tank on his last leg. And I shared the gospel with him, like I was trained. And when I said, would you like to receive Jesus as your Savior today? Tears streamed down his eye and he said, I sure would. Gave his life to the Lord. And I came back

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rejoicing with the sheaves in my hand. They that go forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them. And I told Brother John, who she come back a week later, said, Brother Gary, you're not going to believe this. But I knew that name sounded familiar. Robie Blevins has been on our prayer list. We've been praying that God would save him. He's going on to be with the Lord. You see, Jesus said, lift up your eyes into the fields for they are white already to harvest. People are still getting saved today, but the question is not whether people are going to get saved. The question is, are the

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God's people going to go tell him? I believe we should sow in and I believe we should invite people to church. And I think God is really saying, all right, now if you're going to do it, it's time to do it and quit talking about it. That's a challenge to me personally. And I know that there's got many ways you can minister and I'm not discrediting any other kind of ministering. I don't want to put anybody, I don't want to pressure somebody. If you feel pressure, you pray about it and you just do what God tells you to do. But if he touches your heart, let's go together for the glory of God. Amen. I won't judge you if you can't come or won't

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come. I'll pray for you and let, but just find a way to just support it. If it's nothing but prayer, if it's nothing for encouragement and support, reading reports, praying over them, but let's do this thing for God. Let's see what God will do. I believe a soul winning church is the church that's going to go the distance till Christ comes. While the world's falling apart around us, we can go give them something to hang on to besides the last breadcrumb they consume and looking for the next answer.