 Let's do what we just sang. We was gonna do sing unto the Lord and lift our hands and all those good things. Let us pray. Father God, we thank you for the privilege and the opportunity to come into your house to glorify you and to exalt your name. God, we ask that you receive our praise and our worship because we don't want anything to cry out for us because you've been too good to us. Don't nobody know how good you've been to us. So we wanna bless you. Praise the Lord, Saints. I'll be reading it to you here in Roman 12th chapter verses one and two. It says, I beseech you, brethren, I beseech you there for a brother by the mercy of God that you present your body in living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. And it says, and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. May the Lord have the blessing to read in the hand of his word. And give him glory and honor and mention this weekend and the worship was high. Hallelujah. So don't sit down with your name. Sing up in praise. Can you know that every breath that you breathe, the breath that the Lord has put in your body. Hallelujah. Without the thank you Jesus. So we give him glory today and we honor him. Hallelujah for being our God, for being our Lord, for being our master, our master, he's our teacher, the teacher that we need. Hallelujah. He's our savior. He's everything, everything. Shabbabah, ha-shabbabah. It's your spirit. But worship is healing in the house right now. It's breakthrough in the house right now. When he breathes on us, something's got to happen. He shows up and when he shows up the house again. It's your breath, it's your breath. Jeremiah, he was writing in the book of Lamentations. He was having a tough time and the children of Israel were having a tough time. Go ahead and take your seats. And in the middle of his complaints, he said, wait a minute. He said, I call this to remembrance. He says, therefore I have hope. It's because of the Lord's mercy that we were not consumed. His compassion, they fell not. He said, great, great. Great is your faithfulness, hallelujah. Glory to God, glory to God. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness, ha-shabbabah. Oh, God, my, my father is no shadow turning with thee. I'll change his night compassions. The summer and winter and springtime and sun, moon, and stars in their corset to thy great faith from them. And love can't sing with me for great are my sin and the peace I endure. To cheer, to cheer, to cheer and to guide. You get straight for today and bright hope for every tomorrow and in the besides. Come on, sing it with me. Shake a ready, thy faithfulness. He's a faithful God. Shake a ready, thy faithfulness. Every time I wake up in the morning, brand new mercies, new mercies, brand new mercies, I see. Come on, sing it with me. You're a, I see, day after day, day after days. Always pray for that. Well, ladies, sing, greatest, greatest. Sacred thy faith, sacred thy faithfulness. Oh. Praise team, musicians, everybody's on key today. I'm still excited over the convention. Watched it on YouTube convention. This is the best convention ever to these people that he comes by and he sees about us. And when we worship him, I said, when we worship him, he's glorified through our worship. I was made to worship God. Today, I see the spirit moving in this place. And as I prepared for a message today, I scratched my head a little bit. And when I come to this house and the Lord has the program already laid out, when we sang the spirit of the Lord, when it comes upon me, I'll feel it. And I won't just feel it, I'll demonstrate it. I'll dance. Because of the goodness of the Lord, it makes me want to dance, it makes me want to shout, it makes me want to praise his holy name. Hallelujah. The songs that we've sung today, they go right along with what the Lord wants me to say today. To the church, if you belong to Jesus, if he's your father, you ought to recognize that. And you ought to behave like you should behave when your daddy sends you a message. So I'm calling this message. I just want to just put this out there and ask a question. It's in the book of Joshua chapter 24. And it's the final admonition given by Joshua to God's people. And as I look at this, when we began at verse number one, Joshua 24, beginning at verse number one, it begins with Joshua, God's mouthpiece. And he's bringing his last admonition unto the people of God. And it begins, it reads thusly, and Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to shake them and call for the elders of Israel for their heads and for their judges and for their officers and their present, and they presented themselves before God. Verse two, I find this interesting. Joshua said unto all the people, thus said the Lord God of Israel, your father, your father's dwelt on the other side of the flood in old times even terror. The father of Abraham, the father of Nekar, and they served other gods. They served gods other than the true and the living God. By the way, did I say what my topic is? Where do you stand? Who's on the Lord side? He said, your fathers, they served other gods, gods without any power, God without concern, gods without love. He said, now this is God talking right now, he said. And I took your fathers, your father Abraham from the other side of the flood and led him throughout all the land of Canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac. So he's pointing out the great things that he's done for his people who don't seem to realize how good they got it. He said, I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood and led him throughout all the land of Canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac. Now, back in the day, every father, every family wanted an heir, wanted a son. And so he says, I gave you Isaac. He said, and I gave unto Isaac, Jacob and Esau. No girl's names in these. And I gave unto Esau Mount Seir to possess it. But Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. He said, I gave you this land but you wound up down in Egypt. And you know, in Egypt, they didn't go down there for a picnic. The reason they wound up in Egypt, they were serving the wrong God. And the Lord said, you need to recognize, you need to understand what it is that I am to you. If you don't find out how you're supposed to treat me, he said, I'll help you out. And so they were taken away down into Egypt. They brought their fathers, and he said, and I brought your fathers out of Egypt. And he came unto the sea. And the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the red sea. And we all know the story about the opening of the red sea. I'll pause for a second. Pharaoh refused to let God's people go. And God sent Moses to tell him, let my people go. You're holding them hostage. You're causing them to work from sun up to sun down, making brick without straw on and on and on. Task completely difficult. And he says, I'm not letting you hold my people but for so long. He said, they will be set free. And so he continued. And you know, all the plagues that he sent at every refusal of Pharaoh, God sent another plague. And finally, after the death angel came and wrote through the city, the firstborn of every family, firstborn male of every family. They were slain. And so Pharaoh finally had to say, uncle. He said, I can't take it anymore. He said, I'm not admitting it perhaps to anybody else but I know down in myself that I'm no match for who you are. You're greater than I am. I'm the Pharaoh. But you're greater than I am. Kind of under his breath. And he let the people go. Almost immediately after they left, he scratched his head. He said, why did I do that? He said, now who gonna make the bricks? Who's gonna raise the crops? He said, I must have been out of my mind. I must have lost my senses. I let them go. He said, I'm getting back. But I wanna tell you, when the Lord sets you free, when the Lord moves in your behalf, he said, you can depend on me. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you because you belong to me. Now God's greatest creation is okay. And he created mankind for his glory. His glory. He said, you ain't working my folks. And so after Pharaoh realized that he had to find another way to get things done, he said, I'm taking them back. But he pursued them down to the Red Sea. And I like the account when Moses and the children of Israel came to the Red Sea while they were being pursued. It says there were mountains on both sides. And there was a Red Sea facing them. Pharaoh and his army and his mighty chariots were pursuing them from the rear. And Moses didn't know what to do. Come on somebody. You been there? Yeah, you been there? We've all been there. When we got into a place when we didn't know what to do, we saw what was happening and we found we had no control and we didn't know what to do. The Lord said to Moses, Moses, what do you have? God, all I got is this rod in my hand. Come on somebody. And God said, that's enough. You and your rod in your head with me. That's enough. Come on somebody. Understand what God is doing. God provides for us. He cares for us. He loves us and He will make a way. I used to say He'll make a way where there is no way. There's not a such thing. God will make a way when there ain't no way. He'll make a way. So the Lord is telling His people in verse three He said, and I took and in verse five He said, and I sent and on down here, I have done in Egypt. So the Lord is pointing out by the mouth of Joshua, I've been your everything. You've never come short when you were with me because I always provided. Verse six again. And I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you came unto the sea and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red Sea. They got right down to the Red Sea and when they cried unto the Lord He put darkness between you and the Egyptians. Come on somebody. And brought the sea upon them and covered them and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt. You saw what I did. You witnessed that I'm able to bring you out. You witnessed that I'm your caring father and you dwelt in the wilderness a long season. Verse eight said, I've brought you into the land of the Amorites which dwelt on the other side of Jordan and they fought with you and I gave them unto your hand that you might possess their land and I destroyed them from before you. Now how you like that? He point continually, he's pointing out I, I, I gave them into your hands. He said, I gave you power to win the war against them. You know, they weren't the United States. The United States think they got the best army and they can take what they want. Well, we'll see. As long as God's on our side, as long as God is with us, we're conquerors. But he said, I destroyed them from before you. He said, God gave his people victory over King Balak of Moab and the false prophet Balem. Verse nine said, then Balak the son of Zippor, King of Moab arose and warred against Israel and sent and called Balem the son of Beor to curse you. But I would not harken unto Balem. Come on, somebody. When the enemy wants to curse you, they got to go before God. They got to get permission from God for God to curse you. He said, I would not harken unto Balem. Therefore, he blessed you still when they're trying to curse you, a blessing comes out. So I delivered you out of his hand and you went over Jordan and you came unto Jericho and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites and the Pizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Gurgisites and the Hibis and the Jebusites, all the sites, brothers. And he said, and I, come on, somebody. He said, I don't need nobody else and I, I can win your battle no matter how difficult it is. He said, I can do it by myself. I'm the king of kings and the Lord of lords and I got you and I delivered them into your hands. And I sent the hornets before you which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites, not with thy sword nor with thy bow. You ever hear of anybody winning a war with hornets? He said, you won the battle. Because I gave it to you. You won the battle without your sword or your bow. He said, I sent them and they ran them out of the country. He said, I have given you a land for which you did not labor. I've given you a land which you did not labor and cities which ye built not and you dwell in them with vineyards, olive yards, which ye planted not do ye eat. I'm kind of liking that arrangement. Amen. How would you like to just walk up into a new settlement? All right. All kind of houses, large and small, Spanish, Tudor, any kind of style you want. He said, I gave it to you. No down payment. No monthly mortgage. He said, I gave you the land and I gave you fruit and food to eat. So verse four, this is the call to make a decision for your provider. Now, if you're part of the family, you need to be willing to be called a part of the family. If you're part of the family, you need to learn how to humble yourself under the orders of your daddy. Come on somebody. He said, you can't be a part of the family on your own conditions. You've got to humble yourself. You've got to get it right. You've got to serve the true and the living God. He said, put away every idol. Put away everything that's a distraction against you walking with me. He said, I need you to be restored. I need to bring you back into the place where you ought to be. He said, now after I've just pointed out to you everything that I've done for you and you still a knucklehead and doing anything you want to do. He said, I won't stand for it. Come on somebody. He said, now therefore fear the Lord. When you realize what he does, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity. Come on somebody. This is the time to make a decision for the Lord. Therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. They worship him, let's worship him in spirit and in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord. You know what ye mean? You, you, you, you, he said, you got to put away your stuff. I beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God. I have to back up. Y'all didn't get that. He said, I beg you that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. The dead sacrifices were good for back in the Old Testament. He said, we're in a different dispensation now and you need to present your body a living sacrifice. He said, the dead sacrifices were good for that but I want now, I want a living sacrifice. I want you to say no to your flesh. I need you to tell yourself you can't do that and still be a part of God's family. Present your bodies a living sacrifice. A holy, living sacrifice. Now, what is, what is a holy sacrifice? I imagine probably as many people as there are, there are different opinions for each one of those people what holy is. But what he's saying is you need to present to God a living sacrifice that is holy, acceptable unto God. Not acceptable unto the preacher. Not acceptable unto your mother, your father. You gotta live holy enough for God to accept your sacrifice. And he said, it ain't no big deal on that. He said, it's just your reasonable service. When you live in a house with your parents there are sacrifices that are required of you like not staying out all night, not causing fights with siblings, not being untidy in your room, not getting suspended from school. When you're part of a family and you're being supported you need to find a way to be acceptable to the family. Now it's just reasonable that you take care of your chores. Your family shouldn't have to pay you to sweep the floor. Your mother shouldn't have to tell you, I don't wanna see this room looking like this again. It's your reasonable service. You can't fall in love with the worst hula men town and expect that to be acceptable. That's not reasonable. So you gotta have a living sacrifice that's holy and is acceptable to the king of kings, the true one, the living God because it's your reasonable service. Nobody shouldn't have to beat you to make you live holy. Instructed, this is another admonition, you're instructed to be not conformed to the world. I don't know about you all, I think there ought to be some limits to how we present ourselves. I lived through the 60s and saw what happened. People start piercing everything, dying everything, three or four different colors in their hair. And just totally wild and I'm gonna go on down the street. Nobody that I ever knew back in the day came to church with pants on with a hose in the knee. Well, yeah, well, I'm holy, I'm holy. And I tell you what, I thank the Lord for this house right here. We don't do stuff like that. I thank the Lord because people come here dressed appropriately for the house of God. Y'all don't have to say amen if you don't wanna. I'm telling you, there's the quorum that should be followed. When you come to serve the true and the living God, you're gonna come in with one pants leg cut off up to here and a hole down in here and all that. I'm coming to serve the king of kings. You couldn't get away with that in no restaurant. So now what we need to do is we need to face ourselves. Where you stand? What side are you on? Are you offering God the sacrifice that he deserves? You offering the sacrifice that he accepts. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what is that good and acceptable. And perfect will of God. I wanna please him. I want to please him. Let the words of my mouth and the testimony. What is it? Word of my mouth and testimony of my heart. Be acceptable in thy sight. Oh Lord, senior moment. I wanna please God. Anybody wanna please God? Amen. Amen. Anybody wanna please God? Anybody willing to sacrifice? Is anybody willing to say I'm on the Lord side and prove it? Back to Joshua. Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth. And put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord. And they said right here, if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose ye this day whom you gonna serve. Whom you gonna serve? Who you gonna serve? Whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood are the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell. But as for me and as for my house, we gonna serve the Lord. I've decided to make Jesus my choice. I've looked at other things that might cause you to be pulled away but I've decided for myself that I will serve the Lord. Hallelujah. Tell me where do you stand? Is everything all right? People decide what sin is sin and they make their determination where they're gonna stand by their actions. Put another little plug in. Three years ago when COVID hit, we were banned from going to church. We were banned to leave the house unless we're leaving for a true purpose. The devil said that because when it first came to be, everybody was restless. Got to go somewhere. I can't be cooped up in this house all this time. What they did, they got accustomed to being in the house. They got accustomed to not getting up on Sunday morning and the devil has loved, has lulled the congregations to sleep. And now we can't get them to come back. Where do you stand? Are you on the Lord's side? Invite you, if you're a member of this church and you're listening and you're not here, I'm gonna invite you to stand up for Jesus. I'm gonna invite you to make a decision. You on the Lord's side or you on the bedside. So now I'm gonna say to you, choose you this day. Whoever I'm talking to, if you hear me and you can't see me, I'm talking to you. Choose you this day. Why would you wait? I'll do it later. No, you've been lulled to sleep. You can't get up. Choose you this day who you're gonna serve. It's your reasonable service. Hallelujah. Now that's my message. I don't have a shouter, but that's my message today. That's what the Lord gave me. I'm like Joshua. I said, this is what the Lord has said to you today. Don't get mad at me. I didn't write it. I spoke it. Amen. And I'm not ashamed of it. Amen. All right, Elbit Ross, come on. Praise God. Come on, give God a hand, praise for the word. Oh, I want to see him look upon his face that is sing forever of his saving grace on the streets of glory. Let me lift my voice. I cares I'll pass home and last ever. Oh, I want, oh, I want to see him look upon his face that is sing forever of his saving grace on the streets of glory. Let me lift my voice. I cares I'll pass home and last ever. One more time. Oh, I want to see him look upon his face that is sing forever of his saving grace on the streets. Let me lift my voice. I cares I'll pass home and on the Lord's side today. Who's on the Lord's side today? Are you standing on the Lord's side? Are you living for Jesus? It only makes sense. But in order to be on the Lord's side, to stand on the Lord's side, you got to be born again. You got to be baptized in the name of Jesus to fill with the Holy Ghost. And if you haven't done that, I'm inviting you right now to come down to the altar. The altar's open if you haven't been born again. If you haven't been born again, at least let us pray for you. At least raise your hand. And those of us that have been born again, are you standing on the Lord's side? Have you made up your mind? Have you decided to make Jesus your choice? Everybody here same today. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna pray that as we've made up our mind, that we'll be faithful to do what God called us to do. Faithful to come to the house. Faithful to pay our tithes and offer. Faithful to witness to the laws. Father, we thank you for your word today. Our hearts are rejoicing. Our hearts are celebrating. We're dancing up and down the house because we received your word. And we say your word was good. Your word was powerful. You're rebuilding this house. You're rebuilding our lives. We say yes to the will of God. We give ourselves to you. We say have your way. We will do all that you've called us to do. In Jesus' name, amen. Say, oh, I want to see him. Look upon him. There, there to sing forever. I've been saving on the streets. There to sing forever. Directions to the church. We wrote how we should act, what we should do, and all that kind of stuff. But it wasn't only to the Corinthian church or the Ephesian church or the Roman church or whatever. It was to us also. It was into the body of Christ, our total body of Christ. So in Paul's first letter to the church of Corinthians, he writes, on the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, amen? And if you want to check that out, that's in first Corinthians 12, I mean 16 and two. So the church was encouraged to set aside amount of money to give each week. That was only for the Corinthian church. That was for our church also, amen? And for church in the future when we're gone, if the Lord don't come, this for every church. But what I want you all to do today or sometime this week, I want you to read the whole chapter of first, second Corinthians, chapter number nine. That whole chapter is how God want us to give. That whole chapter is how God want us to give. So I want you to read that chapter. In verse one and two, I'm not gonna read it, say the willingness is about to get ready to give, about the willingness of the Corinthians Christians to give, about the willingness of Shilafate to give, amen? That was it about, oh, verses three and four, Paul is sending Titus and the others to collect the collection, amen? To get the collection from the Corinthians. But the verses that I wanna read to us today is the reward of giving and the right heart in giving. Verse number six, our heart should be bountiful. Our shout out will be bountiful and we will reward it bountifully. And this is what it say. For this I say, he who sold sparenly will also reap sparenly and he who sold bountifully will also reap bountifully. So it's like a farmer who soars and soars our seed with his hand. So when we give to God, we giving, God don't need our money. I want you to know that. God does not need our money. But God need our money to support the ministry that he's got going for it, amen? That's what he needs it for. He wants to see how willing you are to give to him because people hold onto that money for some reason or another. They can give their praise and they can give their worship but they hold onto money. God wants you to let it go. He wants you to let somebody to go. Amen. He don't want you to starve. He doesn't want what he want. But guess what? He who's so bountiful, he gonna give it back anyway. Amen. And also, you will reap bountifully. Not only materialistic, but spiritually. This offering is a spiritual thing. It's not a materialistic thing. Spiritually, if you give to God, it will make you grow spiritually. I'm telling you, if you weaken your spiritual life as we give somebody to the Lord. Because it's all about your heart. That's what it's all about. So I'm just giving you a mini lesson, okay? So you will reap bountifully, spiritually and materialistically. And verse number seven says, so let everyone give as he purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves the tear-for-giver. So he's saying every one of us, giving is for everyone. And Christians should be a giver. It because, and if you have small resources, guess what? He understands that. But if you have a lot of resources, he understands that. But when you got a lot of resources and you hold them back, he also understands that too. Even if you got a lot of resources and you hold them back, because guess what? People do whatever they wanna do. They get their nails done, they get their toes done, they get their hair done. And I'm not saying come in here and look irregulately and stuff, but honey, some of that money that you're using for your nails and toes, you owe it to God. Amen, amen, amen, I'm telling you. Hey, bitch, I was telling the truth about the holy genes. I was so disgusted by looking on the line at our convention and somebody walked up there to sing in a choir with a whole this big in their genes. That make us look bad. Yeah, well, it works in that. Well, anyway, I ain't gonna get into that. But it makes the Lord look bad. And also us look bad, also makes the Lord look bad. So we got to be careful how we do things. God cares about, you said, well, the Bible said, come as you are. Yeah, he said come as you are, you're how come as your heart is. And if you don't have better, you can't do better. But once you come in the house of God, you start giving, God gonna make you better. Amen, amen. And he say, for each of us to give, as he purposed in his heart, what is your heart like? Do you want God to bless you? If you want the blessings of God, you need to give. Well, I'm already blessed. Well, then you need to give more. If you feel like you already blessed and you got so much, then you need to give more. Amen. God is watching us. He knows just like the widow with the two mites, he's watching us with our $2,000 or $3,000, $50,000, $100,000, whatever money we got, he's watching us and then we got $2. He's watching us. He knows what you can give and he knows what you can't give. And some of us are not doing what we can do for the Lord and we know we're not doing for the Lord. Amen. Not gradually or up necessity. In other words, he ain't gonna beg you. I mean, if you don't want to do it, he ain't gonna beg you to do it. But you know what? You gonna pay for it in the long run. In some kind of way, you gonna pay for it because every promise he put in this book in the Bible, this is the Bible that I got, every promise he put in the Bible, we have to obey. And he's gonna reward you or disreward you for what you do, amen? So we got to do what God wants us to do. For the Lord loves a cheer for giver. That means a happy giver. Somebody who's glad about giving. When we come for the offer, we should have shouting down the hall to give our offering to the Lord. There's one church I watch online and they used to pass to tell him, shout down the hall to give your offer. Do it with joy. Don't do it gradually. Don't act like you need that money. Yeah, God needs that money and he wants your money. And if you give it to him, he's gonna give you more. And I'm a witness. In the verse 89, I'm not gonna read it, it says the right kind of giving is always blessed. So you go home and read 2 Corinthians chapter nine. It's about giving. And while you're reading it, say, Lord, if I'm standing with you, change my heart, change my mind. Basically this church is really good with giving. We're really good. But guess what? We can do, some of us can do better than what we're doing. And we know it. We can do better. Let's do better. Let's give our offering. Amen? In the name of Jesus. So everybody stand with your envelope. That was a little shot, Leslie. Give you more to give. Some more to give. Some more to give. If you give unto the Lord, He will give you more to give. He will give you more to give. Oh, if you give unto the Lord, He will give you more to give. Some more to give. Some more to give. Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord God, we ask you, Lord God, bless our hearts, Lord God. Lord, stir our hearts up. Cause us to give to you like you want us to give. We ask you to bless each and every one of us, Lord God. You know how much we can give. You know how much we have, how much we don't have. The Lord that we don't have, we know that you can give us more. And Lord God, those who have plenty, you can have us to give more. We thank you and we praise you. We, actually, the blessings and Jesus' name we pray. Amen. More to give. Or if you give unto the Lord, He will give you more to give. He will give. I offer you, in the name of Jesus, the blessings of the Lord God, let him meet all the needs of this church. We thank you. We pray to give you all the glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Father, we thank you for your tender mercy and your loving kindness. Thank you, O God, that you have provided us for us. Thank you, O God, that you've caused our hearts to yield into the spirit of truth. Lord, we actually receive this offering that we receive so that it may meet the necessities of this church. We thank you because you've provided. You've never let us down. And we praise you and give you glory for all that you do in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. With Jesus. Come on, Sankey. I'm determined to walk with Jesus. I'm determined to walk with you. I'm determined to walk with you. I'm determined to walk with Jesus. Yes, I am. You shall know.