The Common Thread

It's been good. Exalt His name together. Amen. I had one little thought while we were singing. I think it was Jesus Paid It All, and I am not going to nitpick songs, but this thought came to me, and because I know a lot of these old songs are inspired by God. I tell you, these songwriters went through a lot, but Jesus Paid It All, and there was one one line in there, kind of stood out to me, and it says, I'll wash my garments in the blood, or something, or wash them white, or something like that, and the thought came to me, you know what? When we come to the Lord, He gives us a new robe. He takes that old robe. He don't want us to come to Him and have to wash that old robe. It's, you know, the song that we sing. It's torn, tattered. He gives us a new robe. It's spotless, never been worn. Praise God for that. When we come to Him, we are a new creature. Everything that we have is in, well, we still have this old flesh to contend with, but when He, when we come to Him, everything He gives us is new. He doesn't want us to bring any, our baggage along with us. He wants us to drop it. He'll give us a new robe that's never been worn. It's spotless, and that just stood out to me, and I was thinking, like, well, praise God for that, that He gives us, everything He gives us is new. We are washed in the blood. Thank God for that. Thank God for the cross, the blood that was shed. None of us would even be able to sit in this church if it wasn't for that, or stand before Him, but thank God for the blood. Amen. I tell you what, thank God for the blood, His mercy, and His grace. Praise God for that, and I got one, one, one other thing, and I hope this is going to be in order. I don't know what the Lord has for the service this morning, but I'm going to put John Paul on the spot. I'm going to ask him if he'd come up, just greet the people. Probably a lot of people don't know, well, I know we have some visitors that don't really know who you are, but, but John Paul, his dad, Brother Thomas, started the work. I say he started the work, the Lord started it. Brother Thomas was the instrument that really got it going. He came up from Jacksonville, McClinney, Florida, back in the, was it early 50s, mid 50s, somewhere along in there, and one of the first services he had here was in an old tobacco warehouse, and there may be some that still sit here that was in that. I don't know if

Betty was, Betty, what about Ernest? I know your mom and dad, some of the, some of the others. I'm not sure about Margaret Pope. She might have been in it too, but anyway, I just want John to come up and just greet the people. If he, if he wants to say something, feel, feel free, but I'm more, I kind of voluntold you, but come on up, and I'll tell you what, we, we love John Paul. We love his family. They've been a big, big part, needless to say, of this work. So anyway, John, come on up. You can thank me later. It's so good to see everybody. It's good to be here. I'll tell you, though we're separated by miles, our spirits have been joined together with him, under him, under his headship, and even though we came, you know, for the memorial service here yesterday for Sherry, it was a joyous occasion because she's really living now. She is really living, and I'm sure the people in Florida send you their blessings to you. I didn't really come prepared to say anything. I did, I mentioned this to Phil yesterday when I spoke a little bit there at the memorial service. I'll just relate it to y'all now. Of course, you know that Sherry went through a trying time there with the cancer and so forth, and we would go over, my wife here, Debbie. I appreciate it so much. I was so faithful to spend time with Sherry and take meals. After Mills, after Mills over there, and we were with her one Sunday evening, and I had told Alan and Danny that they needed to get a copy of one of the course tapes. I felt like that they were, every time you'd go in there, you'd see the TV would be on, they'd be watching Fox News or something, and it was all negative, negative, negative. And I said, you know, this ain't going to help anybody. And so I said, why don't you get a course tape and just play it? You don't have to play it all the time or real loud or whatever. And so they did that. And when we were there, that course was singing, and they were singing that song, How Great is Our God. And while we were sitting together, me and Debbie over here, and Sherry was over here in another little love seat there, and she was singing along with the tape. You could tell her heart was going with that.

And we were watching her, and then she started mentally, she wasn't just repeating the words, she was living, it was part of her. How great is our God. And she was lifting her hands, here's a woman, and nobody knows the pain that she was suffering, what she was going through, not only physically, but mentally at that time. And yet, she's lifting her hands and tears are streaming down her face and singing, How Great is Our God. What a testimony. What a testimony. You know, I just pray that these songs here, it's totally lifting our Lord up. No matter where we are, I can remember so many times, y'all have heard the stories growing up, Robert was there a lot of the times with us. His daddy, I don't care where he was at, and if he got an open door or just a crack in the door, he was going to let people know about Jesus. And he was faithful, faithful. He did, he told me, I guess a couple of weeks before he passed, we were there with him. I was by myself actually in his hospital room, and he was reminiscing, looking back at his life. And I tell you, once Jesus reveals himself to you, I tell people this all the time, once that becomes a reality to you, you will melt before him. You'll throw down any weapon you have, and the only thing you can do is lift your hands to him. You have no answer for anything, you just fall before him. But daddy was talking and he said this, he says, I wonder, I wonder how many of my works are going to be burned up. And y'all know his life. You know, the only thing we can point to, God does choose his own, but we need to point to him and we need to point everybody we know to him and let them know that he's their only hope. He's the only one.

And anyway, I just, I want to encourage y'all. Let's keep looking up. I don't think it's going to be too much longer. That Eastern sky is going to split and we're going to see our Lord and our savior. I just bless him and praise him today for his goodness, for his faithfulness. We're not worthy of anything. He alone, he alone is worthy and I will praise him. Amen. Good morning, friends. I want to thank you all for an opportunity to share a gift that the Lord has given with me in the form of an experience of prophetic vision. And I'd like to dedicate that vision to him in prayer. And while I do that, what I would ask you to please intercede on my behalf, sharing the access that you have to his throne on my behalf. God, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, I love you, and I worship you. You're everything to me. Father, I dedicate this sharing to you, that you'd be glorified, and that your people, your chosen ones, be encouraged, be strengthened, and be comforted. Amen. OK, so I have had dreams given to me from the Lord, but this was my first vision. And I knew it was different because it was as if somebody had taken a snapshot and put it right before my eyes. And it was a picture of an enormous needle. Now, this needle stretched from the third heaven down to the earth. And as the prophets have taught us to do,

I asked the Lord, what is this? What is this needle? And he said, I'm piercing hearts. I'm turning hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. And I said, praise you, Lord. Only you can do that. And then I saw a thread being threaded through the eye of the needle. It was luminous. It was pulsating. And it was beyond anything I'd ever seen. Again, I asked for confirmation from the Lord. And he said, it's my Holy Spirit. And the Spirit is guiding the needle because the needle is taking those hearts that I have pierced, and he is stitching them together. I said, Lord, that's beautiful. I see it. I feel it here. It's happening now. He said, that's right. The time is coming. You see, the apostasy is in full bloom. We are looking like the days of Noah when people are putting themselves on the throne where the Lord belongs. But my will, people, will be done. There are many falling away from the church in this present apostasy. But watch, because there's those falling away,

those that know me, those whose hearts I've stitched together, my chosen, my bride, the ones I'm coming for, they're going to see a falling down. I said, Lord, what do you mean a falling down? He said, because the walls of the church that separate them are coming down. My people, my remnant, will have no wall separating them. And I said, Lord, what a beautiful vision. And I feel it, and I see it, and I glorify you for it. So I want to thank you all for giving me this opportunity to share. Buck and I love to be in your midst. It's evident how much you love the Lord by the way you love each other so well and the way you've loved us. So I wanted to tell you that when we're not with you, our hearts and spirits are, but we see the walls have dropped. And when we're not here with you, we're here with the remnant. We're somewhere with the remnant, worshiping with them and serving with them for the least, for the lost, and the hungry. Thanks be to God. Praise the Lord, that's challenging to follow. I appreciate it. I believe the Lord's witness is there, certainly with me. Am I right? Absolutely. You know, many of you or a few of you were here years ago

when the Lord visited the church in a most unusual way. And that's not the focus, but there was a time when it was unusual to come to a service when there wasn't a vision given during the service. It was just a very special time where the Lord was revealing things. The essence of it had to do with the fact that we were at the 11th hour. There was one hour to go. And there were a lot of revelations that had to do with what was gonna unfold and it was very much exactly what we just heard. And I'm sure we didn't handle it all right and didn't interpret it all right. And we certainly didn't have the timescale right, but God knows what he's doing. And I appreciate. But one thing that those of you who were there in those days remember is Brother Thomas's reaction. He said, we didn't look for this. You know, we didn't ask for this. What Lord, what's going on? Tell us how to handle this. And there was a great and right emphasis on seeking the Lord like never before and judging everything, assessing everything by the witness of the Spirit and by scripture. Because if anything's really from the Lord, it's going to have a witness.

It's gonna bear witness to those who have honest hearts and are just looking to the Lord. But it's also gonna, he's not gonna depart from this. He's given us what we need here. And so I've just had some simple thoughts and I don't know if this is gonna take a long time, but I thought of a scripture that really goes along with this because one of the central thoughts was not only the, you know, what's happening in the world in the apostasy. And we know that's happening. We know that the trend is going to be away from God. Isn't it? But the focus was on what's God doing with his people. The fact that he is reaching a people there called the remnant. We've heard a lot about that over the years. And what is he doing with them and what's it gonna look like for us? And people have had all kinds of ideas and I'm gonna go back to something I've said in the past. We need to stay tuned and stop trying to, oh, I know I can make a chart of what's gonna happen. No, I can't. I know somebody who does know. And I'm just gonna listen to him and what he says and trust him to lead us. And all I need to know is what's my part? What's he doing in me and what's my part? And how do I fit into his plan?

Because he's the one doing the planning, not me. Praise God. But I thought about the night the Lord spent, the evening the Lord spent with his disciples before he was crucified. And there was a prayer in which he prayed for his disciples, the ones, and he mentioned them as people he had called out of the world. And it's very plain without going through the scripture that there are only two kinds of people in the world. There are people who have been born of his spirit and those who haven't. Now I understand. Also the process that exactly what was described there, that God is still reaching those that he has foreknown. And they're his in that sense. But there are only two kinds of people. You don't have Baptist and Pentecostals and a gazillion other divisions that have happened. God is absolutely called a people and his purpose is that we know him and walk with him and be one. And let's see if I can pick up. He prays that God, Jesus prays that, not that the disciples would be taken out of the world, but they would be protected from the evil one. They would be set apart by truth. I'll tell you, when God plants his truth and his spirit in our hearts,

that sets us apart from the devil because the world is founded upon lies. And God is setting us free from lies on an individual sense and in a general sense, but praise God. But look at verse 20 of, this is John 17, if I didn't say it, my prayer is not for them alone. So it's not just for the 11 at the time that he was standing there with. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. Well, that means Jesus was praying for a lot of you that are sitting around here today, okay? He was praying for us. Those who will believe in me through their message. What? That all of them may be one. Father, just as you are in me and I in you, may they also be in us. There's a organic connection, a real spiritual connection, just as real as these bodies are connected, praise God. All right, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me. Wow. What? That they may be as we are, they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me, for what purpose? So that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know. Interesting way that's put, isn't it?

This is not just, oh well, one day we'll all be in heaven and all those walls will come down. There's something the Lord's doing here. Now, what's that gonna look like? I don't know. We used to hear a whole lot of speculation about, you know, the future and people have all kinds of ideas. I got one idea. Let's listen for him and just walk with him. He kind of knows where we're going and he's got the plan. But do you think Jesus was actually praying according to the will of God? Yeah, he was. And if we pray according to the will of God, what happens? It'll be answered. That's exactly right. So I believe one way or another, this is going to happen. And, you know, I thought about a lot of things, but I remember messages that the Lord gave me over the years. One of them that you may remember was the one about God in a box and how we tend to build this little box and this is what God's like. This is what he stands for. And anything outside of that is no good. And we all pretty much limit our idea of God and how he works and who he is and what he's about in ways that are not, that frankly, didn't come from the Lord.

And where else did they come from that? Do you think the devil has had a hand in dividing real believers? Just a little bit? Yeah. I remember another message that the Lord gave me a number of years ago, and this was actually preached in South Carolina when I was visiting down there one time. And it was about building bridges, not walls. Very simple principle. Now, I'll just recount something that I've said many times that often a prayer that I have is, Lord, I need to be, I ask you to be as open as I need to be, but also as discerning as I need to be because one of the things the Lord warns about in the end times is, throughout the age, but especially the end times, is the power of deception. We are seeing the things that God showed us so many years ago. unfold in front of us. There is strong delusion where people absolutely believe something to be true and it's total nonsense. It's straight out of the heart of Lucifer, designed to blind and hinder them and cut them off from any influence of God. We're seeing it happen. And so we need discernment. And the things that actually were said in that, in that, what was said this morning was about the apostasy. It's real. We've heard many times over the years about the simple reality that much of Christianity is not real. I think I said recently, I'm just about tired of calling myself a Christian because it doesn't mean anything anymore. It's just a religion and we don't need a religion. We need the Savior. But anyway, all the things that we used to hear so much about the apostasy and about the fact that so many will arrive that day thinking

they've done great stuff for God and find out they were rejected. Why? Because they didn't measure up? No, because they never surrendered their hearts and allowed him to come in and do that work that's on the inside. Because we haven't joined a religion. If we have, you don't have anything. We need the Savior to come and to live in our hearts. And He is real. And everything has been said about Him. It's all Him. And to Him alone be the glory. He is the one who has earned it from time immemorial. But think of other scriptures. Did not Jesus say, and we've said these things many times, I will build my church? Well, I guess He's pretty good at it. He kind of knows what to do and we don't. We're so good at building our churches, but we need to be a part of His building His church and have open hearts. And we do tend, I think the enemy has been, has made a business out of this, of dividing us over things that don't matter. Now things, the centrality of Christ matters. The finished work of Christ, who He is and what He has accomplished and the way that we had gained a relationship with God, that's, you can't cross that line. But how many other walls have been built up to separate real believers? This is certainly not an important one, but you know, I came in contact, most of that visitation that happened was a special time in 1968 about. And I came in contact with the work the beginning of 1969 and I listened to tape after tape after tape and read everything there was, so I was pretty conversant with it all. But I told my testimony recently and how Sue and I actually were on a track to be foreign missionaries in a missionary movement that had a lot of real believers in it. And so we were at a crossroads there, and one of the reasons, obviously a major reason why we came here was because we sensed the Lord here in a powerful way and it was real. But there was an issue that absolutely kind of put us on a track where there was no other way to go, in a sense, because the work that the movement that we were a part of, that we were a part of, in spite of all the wonderful people that were in it, they had a doctrinal statement. And part of their doctrinal statement was you've got to believe that there is going to be a thousand-year literal reign of Christ on this planet, you know, a thousand-year literal military, political, whatever you want to call it, earthly kingdom in the future, sometime after Christ comes. Well, I was quickly confronted with the idea that that's not in the Bible. I mean, people interpret certain scriptures that way, but I'm not going to get into that issue. But I became quickly convinced that that was not right. Well, in order for us to have

served with that group, I would have had to sign a statement saying, yes, I believe that. They put up a wall about an issue that had nothing to do with whether you know the Lord or not. Whether you're really His. And I mentioned the other week in that testimony of how we, you know, we knew there was a couple that's related to Susan, her sister and brother-in-law, who had been, who were missionaries to Indonesia and later, he later became the president. Well, interestingly enough, Tuesday evening we were invited over to the, over to Buddy and Susan's and had a wonderful evening of fellowship with them. Now, we didn't get into discussing some of these issues, but it was, I mean, it was obvious. Yes, everybody there knew the Lord. We just fellowshiped in the Lord's spirit. But yet there was that wall that had been erected so many years ago. Probably still exists. I don't know. Why is that? May God open our hearts to have an honest, open heart, to seek him and to say, we don't know all the stuff we think we know. Even Paul, with all the things that the Lord had showed him said, we know in part. There'll come a time when we know all these other things that we need to know. And God can tell us what we need to know. But oh, you got people that got a common answer to everything. Oh, it's all about the sovereignty of God. No, it's about the will of man. And they're jumping different ditches.

Instead of just saying, Lord, I know you're in charge, but I know I'm responsible too. There's a simple middle path. You know, I think about famous preachers in history. Was it? Praise God. If I can learn, if I can think. You know how it goes anyway. But who was it? Whitefield and Wesley were two great men used of God powerfully. And Whitefield was very strong on the sovereignty of God and Calvinism. And Wesley was just the opposite. And they even had some very spirited, pointed debates about it. And yet the truth is they each respected the other. Boy, I'll tell you, we need the Lord to tear down the walls. It caused us to think we've got God in our little box and we got the answer to this and the answer to that. And if you're not part of this, well, we just can't really, you know, there's a little wall here. We got to be careful. God help us to find that perfect balance of just saying, Lord, there's one thing that needs to divide us. Do you know Christ or do you not? I'll tell you, there are people who know the Lord

who've been born of his spirit or will be in places that we cannot hardly fathom. I want to be open to whatever the Lord does. To know that he has promised to finish the work. How many times have we heard these scriptures? He's the one who's building it. He is reigning, how long? Until all enemies are under his feet. But there is a harvest going on. Yes, we see the unfolding of evil that's going on in the world. But we also know that exactly what was described there. There is a work of God that is calling out the last of his people. There are missionaries today that are going into jungles where people have never heard the gospel. We have brothers and sisters who are suffering, but yet God is reaching people in places that we can hardly imagine. May our hearts be enlarged and open and see we're part of something a whole lot bigger than the Bible tabernacle. And we've got brothers and sisters who've got labels on them. May God tear down all the labels. You know, there was a famous, trying to think of who it was. It was a famous Baptist preacher. Somebody tell me, but anyway, back around the beginning of the late 1800s.

But anyway, he said some very strong words about the Baptist. May the Baptist name perish forever. And he was a Baptist. But he was right. He recognized it's not about being your Baptist or whatever you are, it's about Jesus. He is the one that needs to unite God's people. And when we learn to make that kind of a connection and say, Lord, steer us through all this going on so that we can recognize and stand fast in the growing darkness, but realize that we're here for a reason. We're here for this particular season. God has a purpose that he will sovereignly finish. Nothing that the devil can do can stop it. The gates of hell will not prevail against what Jesus is unfolding. And when he finishes building that kingdom, he will hand it off to the Father and he will join us forever as our elder brother and we will worship the one true God. To him be praise and honor today. I just praise him. I believe, I mean, my witness is certainly this is, oh yeah, one of the thing I was going to say. I don't want to go into a lot of the things that specifically the Lord revealed in those days, but there's one that came back to me and Carl mentioned the same thing.

How many of you who have heard about or how many of you who were there in those days remember a vision in which the Lord showed a very dark world. In that dark world, there were points of light here and there. And you remember what happened? streams of light began to connect those dots. And what happened then? As I remember it, unless I'm thinking two different visions, those lights began to come together. And what did they form? They formed the image of a man, a bright man of light. At first it was laying down, and then it stood up. And you remember what happened then? It was lifted off the earth, and then fire fell, and consumed everything that was left behind. That's the perfect picture of exactly what's what's happening. Just as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, it was in the flood when it was water, then it's going to be fire, as Peter says. That's where we're headed. But I'm so thankful to be part of the man of light. He's the one who made, who did that, that he could take somebody like me and make me part of that. That's incredible. Praise God. Every one of us can look in the mirror and find all kinds of reasons why the Lord would not include us, if we're honest. But he did. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow. To him be the glory. So I just pray that God will help us to have a sense of where we're headed, where we're at, where we're going, so that we can start to tear down walls and say, yeah, even though I, I mean, I mentioned before that I have been in Christian conventions, broadcasting conventions, you know, the international religious broadcasters. And I guarantee I have stood beside people that, if we had gotten into it, you know, we'd had some pretty strong, strong differences. But, you know, you have to look past that and say, look, we're brothers and sisters. That's the, that's the ground that we have to stand on. I'm gonna receive you as my brother, even though I think you're crazy to believe that. But the Lord can, the Lord can help us with those kinds of

things, because I might be crazy to believe some things too, but, but God is faithful. He is worthy to be praised, and he is going to, he's going to bring us all the way to the end of the age. And I believe exactly what's, what's happening. There are hearts being pierced. His Spirit is at work. And, and it's to bring us together, because that's what Jesus died for. That's what he prayed for. That's the heart of God, and it's gonna happen. And it's gonna happen in a way that there will be a witness, somehow, to this world, that he's real. There will be no excuse when men stand before God on that day, and they've said no. But I thank God for everyone that says yes, they're our brother and sister. We're going to spend eternity with them. To God be the glory. Okay, okay, yes I did. In, in John 17, thank you Carl. I in them, they may be one, I in them, and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity, then the world will know that you sent me, and have loved them even as you have loved me. Praise God. I'm not gonna read the rest of it, but you're, you're right. That's all right. I did the same thing to Ben last week, when he forgot something. Read a verse and meant to finish it, but I praise, I praise God. God's gonna do something that, again, the word, he will demonstrate it to the world, that this is real. I want to be part of that, and I, I haven't got what it takes, except him. It's all him, and to him be the glory. Praise God. Praise the Lord. I appreciate this, this morning. I'm just gonna read the scripture. I feel like it goes along, and I just, I appreciate everything we've heard this morning. This, and this is not new, you know. That's something that's Lord's already put in our hearts, this vision that we, well let me, well for one thing, you can, you can make religion out of non-denominationalism too. You can be proud of that rebellion of not being a part of the other system. I'm just, that's how we are. It's how our nature is. We're gonna find something to make ourselves feel better about ourselves. Anyhow, or exalt our flesh. That's, that's, that's the root. This is Ephesians 2. I guess I'll start right here in 13. I just felt like it goes along. It's, it's, in one sense, it's a different topic, but I I thought about that song we sing, he didn't bring us this far to leave us, he didn't teach us to swim to let us drown, he didn't build us home to move away.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. Now I know I don't want to take the scripture out of context that this is referring originally to Jew and Gentile, okay, so I don't want to skew that, but let me keep going and hopefully it's fitting. By abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations, his purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace and in his one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to you who were near. For through him, we both have access to the father by one spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. If that applied to Jews and Gentiles, certainly it applies to all believers separated by a man constructed wall or doctrinal belief. God help us.

I think Ben said this not too long ago. This has been kind of my mantra for a long time. I don't care to be right as far as a competition, anything to prove. I just wanna be right because it's right, because it's God's rightness. It's the truth. It's the true truth, his truth without anything added to it. That's my stance. I got no dog in this fight. I mean, like you said, we see through a glass darkly. So anyhow, that's all I'm gonna say there. Amen, this will be short, but it's really just a confirmation to what Christine shared with us. And she didn't know this, but so much yesterdays at the memorial service for Sherry, Sister Sherry, there was so much talking about her life, not just her life, but how all of us, we all come different ways, you know, some harder. I thought of that song we sing, you know, some through the fire, some through the flood, but all through the blood. Thought of that when Donald was speaking about the blood. We're all come different ways, but God brings us all by his grace and his faith and his love for us. But while different ones were speaking about, you know, sometimes our wills and our hearts can become calloused and not towards the Lord,

but he's so patient with us. And he deals with us very patiently in so many different ways. But this scripture came to me, I almost shared it yesterday in the memorial service, but I didn't. But then Christine shared it this morning and it's just like a light bulb hit, but she referred to this scripture over in Ezekiel about the stony heart and what God's gonna do. And this scripture came to me yesterday. So I just wanna read it. I don't believe it's an accident. I believe the Lord gave me that scripture yesterday and it's meant for this morning, just to remind us, very familiar. There's a couple of references to it, but this is in Ezekiel 11. I'm gonna read the NLT verse 19. And this is where the Israelites were being restored. They were, you know, they've been out, a lot of detestable idols, different things that they were doing, but God's heart was still towards them. And it explains what he was gonna do here, but I just wanna focus on this one verse. And I believe it ties in with what the Lord's doing right now in our midst, in our hearts. And it says, and I will give them a singleness of heart. Wow, do we have a singleness of heart?

Another translation said, there was a heart that's not divided, an undivided heart and put a new spirit within them. I got to thinking about, you know, that we can say, well, I have his spirit in me and the Lord saved me. I've done that, you know, I've received his spirit, but a new spirit is an ongoing thing. Is it a not his spirit? It's not a different spirit. It's a newness and a freshness and a day-to-day spirit every day. Do y'all believe that? I really believe that's what this is, part of this is what it's saying, a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart. Man, we've all can say that and give them a tender, responsive heart. Do y'all want? that I want to tend a responsive heart. So I just want to share that I believe it fit in with what the Lord's uh telling us this morning. Praise God I appreciate this this morning. This is going to be real real short too um or also I guess for you English majors. But anyway I thought about this song and uh with what been brought forth and somebody can correct me on this. I believe Sister Alice Edmiston, the Lord gave this to her about God is bringing his people together. Did the Lord give Alice that song? I got a yes. Okay I'll take it. So um but I'm gonna read this um God is bringing his people together. He is calling out of Babylon one by one. By his spirit he is bringing us together

for we are one with him and his son. It's a glorious church without spot or wrinkle washed in the blood of the lamb. It's a glorious church without spot or spot or wrinkle and the common thread here is washed in the blood of the lamb. I don't care who you are. Don't care what church you go to. What you believe the bottom line is are you washed in the blood? That's going to be the bottom line. It's going to be Jesus and him crucified. That's what we're going to believe in. I tell you what it don't matter if you believe in the rapture or if you don't believe in the rapture. It's going to come down to do you believe that Jesus is the son of God and he came to this earth to die for you while you were in your sins. That's going to be the bottom line. Are you washed in the blood of the lamb? I hope all of us can say and I and I'm going to say what you know there's one thing I'm going to make reference to brother Thomas again. One thing that he said that when the Lord saved him he had no doubt about his salvation and when the Lord saves us and washes us through that blood we should all say with a confidence yes I am washed in the blood of the lamb. Thank God for that. Praise God and I thought about one other thing and Phil made reference to it about you know I don't need I don't need religion. I need the savior and it made me think of something that Billy Graham said and I'm not going to refer you to Billy Graham this time okay. So anyway he made a he made a statement. I told Steve about this probably about a month ago after one of the services but he made he made this statement. He said religion is an inoculation to keep you from getting Jesus Christ. That's a mouthful right there. I'll tell you what I hope to God we don't have religion. I hope we have Jesus Christ washed in the blood of the lamb.

Amen. I was just thinking about as we were talking here this morning you know when Jesus came and he began to minister man he upset everybody's apple cart. He was nothing like what they expected or what they thought things were supposed to be and you know they had taken something God had given. I mean God genuinely gave the law through Moses but they had taken that and distilled it down into such a system if you will the beliefs you know this and that this is how this is and this is what this means and and they had distilled it all down to the point that instead of that law drawing them to God making them want to get to know him unfortunately it became a replacement for a relationship with God because you didn't really need to be connected to him because you had it all you had the playbook right if you ever needed to know anything you just it's all figured out it's all right here and that can happen you know it can be the way it was to them this is our checklist to make sure God's happy with us you know if I think this and I confess this and I do this and then everything's great instead of being connected and saying God what are you doing what do you want me to where do you want me to go what do you want me to do what do you want me to say and when Jesus came and did exactly that and said father where do you want me to go who do you want me to talk to he was he was such a you know so different from that they rejected it they weren't even able to see that God was doing something different you know the law had been given right God gave the law there's no question about that but that was only part of his plan and when the fullness of time came and he said now it's time to do this they couldn't see it because that was this that was the system this was what they clung to this was their assurance that everything was good with them and God because I'm in the system and I'm

I'm locked into my system. Well, we can't afford to do that because there are times and seasons for things. You know, there's times and seasons for all kinds of things in life and our, you know, individuals and families. And as a church where God may close this door, open this door. And we've used that illustration many times from the wilderness about the cloud moving. And we've got to be able to move when it moves and stop when it stops. But the key is to let him be the head and we can't cling to our systems as the thing that keep us right with him. What keeps us right is staying close to him. Abiding in the vine, right? That's how we bear fruit. And, you know, I was thinking about something. We were talking about something fairly recently and somebody's watching an old message from Brother Carter Conlon there at Times Square Church. You know, we've watched many of his messages here and there over the years and it's been such a blessing. And there was a particular doctrine he was making reference to kind of in passing. And he said something like, you know, well, if you don't believe this, I don't know about you. You know, I don't know if you're a Christian or not. You know, it was sort of a,

I don't know if it was said half in jest or whatever, but he was sort of planting his flag on his doctrine. You know, well, you remember that message we watched here recently? It might've been the last one we watched from him or one of the more recent ones. And he was saying, his confession then was, you know what, I don't care what you believe if you believe Jesus is the Christ. You're my brother, you're my sister. That's a journey. And the point, the reason why it struck me in thinking about it this morning is because his point in that message, the point he was trying to make is that these kind of differences that have divided people over, like Phil said, non-central issues, doctrinal questions here and there, but they've divided believers because it becomes your purity test. You know, are you a real Christian? Can I fellowship with you? Oh, you don't believe this? You're not a full Christian, you know? Maybe you'll corrupt me if I fellowship with you, or, you know, all the different little things like that. His point in that message was these kinds of things, this is what has limited, or in some cases eliminated, the effectiveness of the church and the culture. That's the point he was making.

That's why his heart was, I don't care. If you have Christ, that's it. You're part of, you're my brother, you're my sister, and I want us to serve him in this dark hour together and lift up his light together, because that's what people need. You know, that was it. That was his whole point. And I could not agree more that, you know, there's a place to, it's good to ask questions. It's good to want truth. We need to form convictions. You know, that's part of our spiritual growth. You know, that's part of the problem with how much we love the rule concept. Like, you just tell me the rule, you know, do this, don't do that, this means this, this means that, and that's all we have. Well, the reason we like that is because it doesn't take any spiritual effort on our part. You know, you can just say, what am I supposed to do about this? Well, you do this. Well, what am I supposed to do here? Well, you do this. Well, then you don't have to seek God, do you? You don't need to ask him anything, because it can just be all given to you. Real spiritual growth, part of that is forming a relationship with him

where you have to sometimes say, I don't know, and I need you to show me. And he might not show you like that. You might have to talk to different people, and they feel different things, and I don't know what I feel. And then you begin to feel at peace with this. And then, well, you know, there's a process of what I'm getting at. There's a growth, there's an exercise in learning how to form a conviction. But then after you do, you can't then say, now everybody's got a lot up with this, or they're wrong and something's wrong with them. You know what I mean? The example, one thing I thought about, you know, I've talked about this some lately because we talked a lot about the emphasis the Lord is making on beginning to reach out to our community and doing other things. New doors the Lord is opening, new things he's done different than things we've done in the past, right? He's leading in some new opportunities. And I was thinking about that parable about the man who made the great supper. I think we talked about this recently, you know, and he sent his servants out, and those that were invited didn't come. They all had excuses.

But he sent them out again, and he said, no, my house is gonna be full. I'm gonna have a full supper here. So you go out into the highways and the hedges, you find those that are blind, those that are lame, you know, you bring them. Well, we've talked about how that's a different commission, right? Because the first time all you need to do is go tell somebody, you're invited, you can come. And then that's all you have to do. But what about for the blind person? You know, you can't just go tell that person, hey, you're invited to the dinner. Hope to see you there, and then leave and go back to whatever. How's that person gonna get there? They're blind. We've gotta be engaged with helping bring that person to the supper, with a person that can't walk. It might take two or three people to help pick them up and carry them together. But now think of it from the perspective of the servants in the house, right? So these were all servants in this man's house. No doubt, big house had a lot of servants, had a whole servant staff. I imagine, and like it would be in a real house, it probably had little conflicts between the servants here and there, right?

Little petty jealousies, petty conflicts, little frictions. I don't like that one. I don't get along with that one. Oh, that's my buddy. You know, there probably was all those dynamics, but once the master said, it's supper time, go get these people and fill up my house, there was no time for that. There was no time for all these little petty frictions and all the little differences and all the, you still owe me five bucks from the other week and if we're gonna get this house filled, we gotta be together. We gotta work together. do this because the urgency of the hour has changed. It is time now. I believe there's something in that the Lord is telling us. I'm moving things in different ways because I'm opening doors and it is time for things that maybe we either haven't been ready for or just hasn't been time for, but it is now. And we can't afford to be divided from his people over non- central things to prevent this, you know, that limit this or hinder this from happening. I don't believe he wants that for us. You know, I was thinking of that occasion where was it, you know, on the first trip there, Paul and Barnabas, right? Paul and Barnabas went on that trip. Well, they got ready to go on another one, but there was a guy that had gone with him, John Mark. And at some point he had turned and left. He had gone back. Bible doesn't say why, just says he left. So they got ready for another mission later and Barnabas wanted to take John with him again. And Paul didn't. I don't know why, you know, I know Paul. I can imagine how Paul was probably like, if he can't take the heat, he needs to stay out of the kitchen. You know, you can just see Paul being like that kind of, I don't know, Paul, forgive me if that's not true, you know, brother, you can prove me wrong. But I mean, I could just see that personality wise with Paul. You could imagine that, right? But whatever, the Bible doesn't say who was right and who was wrong, but there was a friction between them and it was so divisive that they could not go on that journey together.

That's why when we sing the song, I read about how Paul and Silas were in jail. Why was Silas with him? Because Barnabas couldn't go with him because they couldn't get over this division. They weren't, so now does that to say that God couldn't do anything? No, he still went with him. He's still blessed. He still worked, but there was a, you just see, because thank God, all these people are just like us and we're all learning the same things, but you see the immaturity there. You see the, that whatever it was, the friction, it prevented them from being able to move together in unity. And there was, I have to believe there was something that happened as a result of that. Now, thank God he got them past it. We see evidence in the scripture later that they worked all that out. They got past that, but, but I don't want that to be the case. I don't want to be saying, God, having set something before us to say, it's time to go do this. And all of a sudden we can't because there's some barrier over some non-central issue that isn't the heart of the matter. You know what I mean? If we read that scripture last week, or we referred to it, as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. That's what we need to see when we look at each other. I have positions on things, and I know there's people that are brothers and sisters in the Lord that have different positions. I'm not worried about it. I'm saying, Lord, you make me teachable. You keep me teachable. You change me where I need to change. You show me. Until you do, I'm going to stand on the conviction you've given me, and I'm at peace with that, but that is not going to divide me from a brother or a sister. If Christ is there, that is the foundation. No foundation can any man lay other than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. And we all build some stuff on the foundation that's not perfect, and some of it gets burned up, and we've got to learn from that, all that. But if the foundation is there, we're one. And I believe God wants us to have that vision to not let anything hinder what he wants us to do because it is, well, you know what he says in 1 Corinthians, right? He said, Jews require a sign. Greeks seek after wisdom. Some of the doctrinal or the denominational splits that have happened over the years have been along some of those lines, right? Emphasizing experience or emphasizing, you know, truth and word, and some of that's where some of that division has come from over the centuries. But what does it say? It says we preach Christ, the wisdom of God and the power of God. What is the answer? It's Christ. That's what we need to be preaching. It's what we need to stand on, and as many have put on Christ, that's what I want to see when I look at him as Christ. These other issues will learn and grow. An infinite God is going to have things to teach us in eternity, and we're all going to have something to learn

that we didn't know here. And the word tells us his, the path of the justice, like that shining light that gets brighter and brighter until it's full day. That's a process that we're all in, and we're all learning. So I just praise God for this truth. This is, I believe, it's like, like you go back to what Carter Collins' point was there. It's not just let's just get along so it's more pleasant. It's critical to be able to operate the way the Lord wants us to in this hour. We don't want to have our effectiveness diminished because we're so busy worrying about our rules and clinging to our system that we feel like keeps us right with God that we miss out on something he's put right before us. We can't adapt when he says it's time to do this now. It's time to do that now. We got to stay connected to him. Praise God. He's got something for us in this hour, and I want to, I want all of what he has for us. Praise God. Amen. Well, this has been wonderful. Anytime he's lifted up, it's wonderful. I'll just relate a couple little things that's happened. Soon be three years we lost our brother-in-law, and I loved that man. We had a connection the first time I met him, but remember we had a dedication at the gravesite and I asked my sister-in-law, I said, can I say a few words, she said, sure. And I'm going to repeat to you exactly what I said, I said, his name was Gene, I said, even though me and Gene were of two different religious persuasions, two different churches, I said, we had one thing in common and that was a fear and a love for the Lord. And I talked to him many, many times before he passed, we'd be sitting there, he'd be laying down most of the time, sometimes it was in the hospital and I'd be talking to him and I'd be talking and expressing the goodness of the Lord and how he had brought us and how he loves us so much that he died for this boy right here. So far as I was concerned, it didn't matter about anybody else, it was me that put him on the cross, I did, it was my sin. And as I was talking to Gene and expressing this to him, tears would run down his cheeks. Not one time did we have a cross word where we tried to correct each other so far as doctrine about this or that. Our fellowship totally was on Christ and his goodness and his love for us.

And I told him, I says, I believe with all my heart, I'm going to see him in glory. I believe he's going to be there and we're going to embrace each other. There ain't going to be no barriers then, nothing, there ain't going to be no labels. You've heard daddy say that at many a time, see, this is another thing kind of happened. We had some folks over, my wife was having some issues, physical issues, and she wanted them to pray for her. And so they came and one of the men was an older, older gentleman. I guess he's 80 now, close to it. But anyways, I don't know why she has to do this, but she always wants me to play a piano for somebody. And so anyways, I just sit down there after they finished their prayer and so forth. And I played the little chorus, he is Lord, he is Lord. And I sang it for them, went through it twice. He is risen from the dead and he is Lord. Every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And I finished and I looked at him, I said, fellas, I said, that's the gospel. That's the gospel right there in a nutshell, that's it. And that older gentleman, he says, I feel God in this house. We went to his wife's and his 60th anniversary just a week and a half or so ago and I spoke to him. I said, you remember me? He said, I sure do. He said, he says, I've told a lot of people that you're a godly man. I said, well, I don't know about that. I said, I love my Lord. I love my Lord. He gave up his life for me and he's worthy of all praise and all honor, amen. Thank God for his presence. Thank God for this message. I was thinking there as the service moved along, you know, we typically have communion

on our, the same day we have a meal. I don't care how it was planned. You think about how communion relates to what we heard today. There's only one righteousness and it's in Jesus Christ. And that's what binds all of us together. We were having worship the other night and there's a song, I think it's a revelation song where it's talking about worshiping the Lord and it refers to the one who sits on the mercy seat. And I kept thinking about it in the Old Testament with that, you know, the Ark of the Covenant. The mercy seat was the lid. The box was made out of wood and it was lined with gold, but the lid was pure gold. And what it did is that lid covered the law. When the high priest went in there to offer that blood once a year, he wasn't looking at the Ten Commandments. He sprinkled the blood on there. And that's what covers us. The law works wrath, but man, I tell you what, the fact that this is a... I tell you, the gospel is the most liberating thing on the face of the earth. It is in Jesus Christ. I just... I thought, man, we're having communion. And look at how that relates to the service this morning. The common thread is salvation through Jesus Christ alone. And we... I tell you, I'm finding out more and more too. I tell you, you might go through a few things and see the Lord working and moving. We see a lot of special things going on right now, but I'll tell you what, when you come right back to it, you can't look at anything other than what He did for you. You have to come back to that. And that's why I said, do this in remembrance of me. You might have a good day, but you might have a bad one. And the only thing that makes it good is the righteousness we have in Jesus Christ. Anyway, I just... I know it's no accident we're having communion today. Praise God.