 the pastor of this house. Amen, Bishop, the first lady, hallelujah, God is doing here at Shield of Faith, Long Beach. Amen, it is worship time, so come on in. Join us if he's everything to you. Every one of us, Lord, those are on their way, Lord. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. It's certainly good to be in the house of the Lord on this morning. God has been so good to us. I can't tell it all. As they say, he's done so much for me, I can't tell it all. Now we come to the portion of church here, where we're gonna be admonished by the Lord. I'm gonna read to you from Ephesians chapter number six. And I'm sorry that we don't have more children in the house today. Amen, because this is what the Lord is speaking to this body of believers about, about being obedient. Ephesians six, beginning at verse number one, said, children, obey your parents in the Lord. For it's right, honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment that has promise connected, that it may be well with thee, and thou might live it long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let me just say a little something. The Lord says, the best way to get all you wanna get out of life is to honor, to obey. And in this society that we live in, there are many young people who don't know if they'll ever reach the age of 20. And I would venture to say that the reason for that is they've not considered what the Lord says that they should consider about being obedient because they don't know nothing. That's why God gave them parents. God gave children parents so that they could be taught. When you're taught and you're raised in the fear and admonition of God, you'll have long life, long life. When I see people who are old or ain't older, I say they must have done something right. They must have listened to somebody. Otherwise, they wouldn't be here. So the admonition today is to be obedient and to honor. Now we turn you to the hands of minister, Terri Edwards. She's gonna bring us into praise and worship. Amen. Praise the Lord. Amen, when we come to give praise and to honor, our Heavenly Father, this morning, hallelujah as we honor our natural fathers, but we give God more glory. Amen, amen. Let's put our hands in, I praise your name. I praise your name. Your holy name. Your holy name. I praise your name. I praise your name. Saturate me, Lord. It saturate me, Lord. Saturate us, Lord. Saturate us with your spirit today, Father. In Jesus' name, at this time, we will have our first lady, Pastor Bobby Alexander, coming with a presentation, amen. Be saturated by the Lord. Saturate me, Lord, with your spirit, amen. To saturate us with this spirit on this Father's Day. And in fact, every day should be Father's Day for us, amen. Because he's our Father and we worship him. Sure, he gave us earthly Father and we also today gonna praise them a little bit. We can't worship them, but we're gonna praise them, amen. We can only worship God, amen. But we're gonna praise them a little bit. So I have a couple of gifts. I mean, a little gift for our fathers. I'm gonna read the scripture first. Verse 23, verses 22, and then I'm gonna skip down the part. And this is a different translation, so just explain it really well. Listen to your father in the same long line of Pastor Bishop Arred when he read Ephesians. Listen to your father who gave you life and do not, listen to your father who gave you life and do not despise your mother when she is old. Arlene, I'm old. Proverbs 23, 24, the father of a righteous child has great joy. A man who fathers a wise son rejoiced in him, amen, amen. And a little gift I have for the man along with the help of my daughter who helped me. Oh, her lovely husband who helped me also. And we have a little gift. The Bible say a man who don't work, what does he not do? Now some of us are retired and we work harder being retired than we did when we worked, amen. Do you agree with that? Brother Darrell, that's me, Bishop, Kevin, Bruce, they agree with that. And also, I own his father in the building. He looked out because he knew what I was talking about. He's a royal father, amen. The Lord had blessed him to live long life. He must have obeyed his parents, amen, because he lived a long life. But we're not gonna get into age down. We're not gonna do under all that. But we praise God for them and what we have gotten from the little token, did I bring them up? Oh, yeah. A little token, we want all the fathers to come up. And it's just something to let you know we think about you and we thought about you. But like I said before, it's hard finding gifts for men. But for women, it's easy. So men with all our fathers, please come up front. I'm gonna have a newlywed to come help me. Sister, somebody gotta take pictures. Now in these little boxes, in these little boxes what we have is guess what, a ballpoint pen. But it's not only a ballpoint pen, it's a workman's pen. Because let me tell you, it has six different functions. It's got a ballpoint pen, it's got a stylus, and it's got a ruler, it's got a lever on it, and inside of it, it's got a head and a flat head screwdriver inside. So you have to put a little something together and when the newlyweds have a baby and they have to put toys together. Amen, so it's a workman's pen. Some of them are silver, hold them up. And some of them are black. So let's see, let's take a picture of the fathers. Father's Day, amen. Scripture says, even when my mother and my father forsake me, Jesus will be there. How many of you God has proven himself to be everything? Beautiful for a situation, the joy of the whole world. Yes, hallelujah, we love you Lord. Come on, singers, help me sing it. Everything to me, you're everything to me. Joy and sorrow, joy and situation, the joy is she. Come on and praise him. Is he everything to you? Is he everything to you? If he's everything to you, get up on your feet and put your hands together and open up your mouth and give him praise. And tell him he's everything to me. He's been my father, my sister, my brother. He's everything. On my way to a city, Pastor Bobby and Heaven, we won't get old. I didn't even get my head back. Come on, somebody, come on and bless the Lord. Come on and praise the Lord. Come on and magnify the Lord. He's everything, everything. Someone said he's a lily of the valley. He's a bright and morning storm. He's the first and the last and everything in between. He's everything, he's everything to me. I bless the Lord, I bless the Lord. You know, I was thinking about that song. I love the Lord and I won't take it back. Won't take it back and misplace my glasses somehow. But God is a faithful God. He's a good guy. Take your seats in the presence of the Lord. I was, I bless the Lord. I give him praise and honor as my savior, my Lord and my savior and I give honor to our bishop and our pastor and our wonderful First Lady and to the ministers of the gospel and saints and friends. We say praise the Lord. And my testimony is that I am yet saved but it's by the grace of God. It's not because of anything good that I did or said but I've been saved by the grace of God. If that's your testimony, tell somebody next to you, I'm saved today. I'm saved today, I'm saved today. The fact is is that we have been saved. We are being saved and we will be saved. It wasn't a one-time event but it's an ongoing process. During Bible study, I wanna give a shout out to our Bible study group and crowd. And let me tell you, if you've been missing, coming to Bible study, you've been missing a treat and a blessing because we've been getting some good words. We've been growing and we've just been learning the Word of God. But on Wednesday night, Bishop said something and it really struck a chord with me. He says that we are involved in a civil war with ourself. The spiritual me is warring against the corner me and both parties are trying and they're fighting to control me. In other words, we must listen to the spiritual man and say, if we are on our way to heaven, if we really want to be saved, then we've got to allow, we've got to choose to allow our spiritual man to have ascendancy over our corner flesh. I was thinking about it the other day, I was talking to some people and I was teaching the class and said, there's something about the flesh, no matter how much you feed it, it is never satisfied. You give it a little bit, it want a little bit more. Sin will take you farther than you want to go and cost you more than you really wanna spend. And we are involved in a civil war, a civil war. But if we want to be saved, we must, by any means necessary, do whatever it takes to stay in fellowship with Jesus Christ in His Word. See, there's some people I tried to stay their friends, but I found out I don't really wanna hang around them because they ain't trying to go to heaven because I'm trying to go to heaven and I'm not trying to go to hell. Now I know we don't talk about heaven to hell very much but it's a reality that we better start paying attention to because Jesus is coming and we getting ready to get up out of here, we getting ready to go to heaven to be with the Lord and I'm excited about it. See, when I was half step in Bishop, I don't wanna hear nobody talk like that. They would say, you know the Lord could come any day and I'd be like, oh my God, but we have to make up our mind by any means necessary. Whatever I have to do, I'm gonna make it to the city. Make no mistake about it. The struggle is real and the enemy doesn't want you to get to that city called heaven. So we can rejoice because we're on our way to heaven but the truth is, except you stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. Tell somebody except you stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. Amen, that's all right. Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for your word. Speak to our hearts and we will bless you and we will praise you. Our heart's desire is to stay in the ship except you stay in the ship, you cannot be saved and our foundational scripture is Acts 27 verse 31. But in Genesis in the sixth chapter, the book of the beginnings, God calls Noah to build an ark. Now the literal meaning of the word ark in the Hebrew simply means a box. I thought it would be something deeper than that. I was looking for something heavy but it just said a box. So God called Noah to build me a box. Now for us today remaining in the ark is symbolic of abiding in the body of Christ, the church for our salvation. So Noah's ark was God's plan of salvation for Noah and his family in that day. Turn to the Bible if you will to Genesis chapter six. Genesis chapter six, we're gonna start at verse five. Said, the God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth, that every imagination of his thoughts, of his heart were only evil continually. And a repented God that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart. And God said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing and the files of the air and for it repented me that I have made them. But this is the verse that I love in this text. It says, and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It said, these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and a perfect man in his generation. And Noah walked with God. We will find that when we walk with God, we will find grace with God. And it said, Noah walked with God and Noah begot three sons, Sham, him and Japheth. And the earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence. Sounds like the six o'clock news. Every place we look, the earth's people are corrupt. They're doing all kinds of things. And there seems to be violence everywhere. It is amazing how violent people have become. They would rather kill you than give you a dime. It's amazing. It's like I looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth and God said, I'm to know the end of the flesh of all flesh has come before me. For the earth is filled with violence. Through them and behold I will destroy them with the earth. And here it is and God said, make me an ark. Make me a box of gopher wood. Room shelf, I'll make him the ark and thou shall pitch it within and without. In other words, you're gonna take tar and put it within and without and that's gonna make it waterproof and buoyant. In other words, it's gonna float. See, Noah didn't really understand. He gonna need this thing to float cause there's something coming that he didn't really understand. As he up until that time, Noah's gonna talk about rain but up until that time people had never experienced rain but God always looks ahead and he knows what you need before you get there and he supplies your knee, he's Jehovah Jireh. The God that looks ahead and supplies your knee before you get there. He said pitch it within and without. Sit and fasten it and thou shall make it the length of it shall be 300 cubits and the breadth of it 50 cubits and the height of it 30 cubits. So the length of it was 450 feet. It was 450 feet long. It was 75 feet wide and 45 foot tall. That was a building. He said, in the wind of thou shall make in the ark and the cubit shall thou finish it above and adorn of the ark show thou said on the side thereof and lower and second and third stories shall thou make it. Here it is. He says and behold I even I will bring a flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life or under the heaven and everything that is in the earth shall die. Lord have mercy. You know we love God in the New Testament but in the Old Testament he wasn't playing. He was taking folks out. See in the Old Testament he's letting you know I want what I want and I'm not playing with you. We thank God for grace. We love grace. I was reading in the Old Testament if your kids act bad you can take them out and stone them. And when I read that I was shaking in my boots because if that was the truth now Bishop I wouldn't have made it past five or six. My mother and my father and my neighbors would be taking me out in New York and everybody have a rock but me. But God said in the Old Testament I want what I want. I remember I was reading one time in the Old Testament and God said there are no shortcuts, shortcuts and no read base, no discounts in the Old Testament it costs what it costs. We need to understand God doesn't play with us even though sometimes we play with him. So God told him no I want you to build me an ark and then he told him later on he said I want you to gather the animals two by two. And this is what I like and said and no obey God and follow God's instructions to the letter. And Noah built this ark. He built on it for over 100 years, 100 years. And I just imagine Noah's neighbors they laughed and talk and said Noah you must be crazy. What are you doing? Why are you building this ark? There's no water near here. What are you gonna do? It's just gonna sit in your yard. See but you need to understand when God tells you to do something the best thing you can do is do it. Because God knows what he's talking about. I forgot to mention so glad to see my oldest daughter. She made me father first. She's with us today. She's daddy's girl. Can't wait to we get out here see what she got me now I'm just kidding. It better be good girl. I know you got a good job. I don't know what you're talking about. Now I'm just kidding. That's why we put them through college. High school's good but college is better you get better stuff out of college. And they look at us and they call us holy rollers. They say you know you doing all that and you running around and you speaking tongues and then they say it don't take all that. But if I wanna please God if I wanna make it to the city I'm gonna do what he told me to do. Let's look at in chapter seven. Chapter seven verse 13. So Noah has built an ark and said in the self same day entered Noah and Shem and Ham and Zaphath the sons of Noah and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them into the ark. They and every beast after his kind and all the cattle after their kind and every creeping thing after it that creepeth after their kind and every foul after his kind and bird of every sort says and they went unto Noah and to the ark two and two or two by two of all flesh where in is the breath of life. Here it is. And they came that went in and went in male and female. They didn't go male and male or female and female and we're not gonna get into that. But they went in male and female of flesh as God had commanded them says and then the Lord shut him in. In other words, after they had done what God told them to do, God shut the door of the ark and it rained 40 days and 40 nights. Can you imagine that kind of rain? And not only did it rain to say he opened up the fountains and the waters came down and the waters came up. There was water everywhere for 40 days and 40 nights. Want you to notice this? Once the Lord shut the door to the ark nobody else could be saved. No, it had been preaching 100 years and they didn't want to hear it. And all of a sudden it started to rain the door, but the door was shut and they could not be saved. When God shuts the doors of the church when the rapture comes, nobody else can be saved. Don't fool around and miss it and wait until God comes and he shuts the doors and then he'll say it's too late, you can't come in but right now you better get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready, because Jesus is coming. He hadn't shut the doors yet but I can hear it creaking slow. It's closing right now and God shut the door. So once we get saved and we're in Christ we get born of the water, baptized in Jesus' name and born of the Spirit. Feel what the Holy Ghost speaking in other tongues. Once we are in Christ, we need to stay in Christ. We need to remain in Christ because we can't afford to play with it. We need to stay in Christ, we need to stay in the old folks used to say the old ship of Zion. Because if you don't stay in, you cannot be saved but the choice is up to you. You have to decide where am I going to spend eternity? Am I gonna spend eternity in hell or I'm gonna spend eternity in the presence of the Lord? The choice is up to you. What do you want to do? See I know sometimes the road gets rough and the going gets tough and sometimes the hills are hard to climb and sometimes the tears are running down your face and meeting under your chin. And you feel like give it up. You feel like throwing in the towel. You feel like jumping ship. But whatever you do, I said whatever you do, whatever you do, stay in the ship, stay in the ark, stay in, because it's better in here than it is out there. Now they had all these animals and they were defecating and carrying on. It was stinking in there. But the smell in the ark, as bad as it was, was better than the smell out there in the world because that was rotten flesh. You see sometimes people have the nerve to say, you know I had it better before I got saved. You lie, you lie, you lie. It's better in here than it is out there. Now I know it's not perfect in here, but it's better in here than it is out there. I say the worst saint is better than the best sinner. So that's the Old Testament. New Testament turned to Acts chapter 27. That's the Old Testament. Now we're getting into the next New Testament. In the 27th chapter of Acts, Paul is being transported to Rome to stand in trial before Caesar. And Paul warms his captors that this trip could be dangerous. He warns them that there will be much merchandise that's going to be lost. And the ship is going to be lost. And they ignored Paul's warning. It is a dangerous thing to ignore the word of God. When Bishop gets up here and preaches and he brings us a word, it's a dangerous thing to ignore the word of God. See, cause we want to say, oh, he's just a man like I am. But see, he is hearing from God. God is downloading on him and he's giving him a word. And when pastor brings a word and you say, I don't care, you're in a dangerous situation. And so they set up to sell and everything is going pretty smooth for a minute. See, that's how it is in the world. The devil will get you to do something and it's going smooth. And we say, boy, this is all right for a minute. But then everything changed. Tell somebody everything changed. Everything changed, everything changed. A storm arose and the wind was blowing and the waves were rocking and going back and forth. And like one of my daughters said, they were crying and throwing up. And they said, all hope of being saved was lost. They threw some of the cargo overboard to lighten the load and that didn't work. They threw the ship's tackle, the ropes and the pulleys and some of the cords. They threw that overboard trying to lighten the load and that didn't work. The truth is they could not save themselves. And you and I today with the power, if we don't have the power of the Holy Ghost, we cannot save ourselves. We cannot stop sinning. We cannot stop lying. We cannot stop fornicating. We cannot stop doing those things. The Bible says, but once you have power, once you receive the Holy Ghost, use your power, power to walk Christ, power to talk Christ, power to live with power to stay in the ship. Paul told the commander, the angel of the Lord came to me last night and he told me this ship is gonna be lost. And he told me the cargo, all this stuff, you so caught up in trying to make money, it's gonna be lost. But then he said, but anybody that stays in the ship, if you stay in the ship life, no life is gonna be lost. What a present, what a blessing from God. See, we get so caught up in stuff sometime. We get caught up in people sometime. But God said, if you will put the things of God before me, I'll make sure you don't lose a thing. He said, not one life is gonna be lost. He said, but the sailors and the shipmen, they were getting ready to abandon ship. They'd already made up their mind, I'm not going down with the ship. Turn to Acts 27, Acts 27, verse 31. So what I wanna look at, 27, verse 31. And Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, accept these abide in the ship, accept you abide, you stay in the ship. You cannot, I said, you cannot, you cannot be saved. Now I noticed this, Paul spoke to the centurion, the big baller, the big shot caller, the man in charge. And he spoke to the soldier. The worker B, nobody special. But he said the same thing to everybody, say everybody, say everybody, say everybody. He said, accept you stay in the ship. I don't care how much money you got. I don't care how much position you got. I don't care how poor you are. I don't care how hard you had it in life. Accept you stay in the ship. You cannot be saved. Jesus has said to us today, I don't care who you are. I don't care how rich, how poor you are. Accept you stay in the ship. Accept you stay in fellowship. Accept you stay in the ship. You cannot, you cannot, you cannot be saved. And everybody stayed in the ship. It said, and the ship got stuck in the sand and the winds were blowing and the waves were beating against the ship and it began to tear up the ship. Look at verse 42, it won't be much longer. Said, and the sailors council was to kill the prisoners unless any of them should swim out and escape. But the centurion willing to say, Paul kept them from their purpose and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves into the sea and get to land. This is what I like. He says, and the rest. He didn't leave out anybody. He said, and the rest. See, God won't leave you out. I don't care what your situation is. God will not leave you out. He said, and the rest. Some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship. And it came to pass that they escaped. All, I like that. See, they escaped. All everybody escaped and they were safe to land. It says some swam to the shore. Some floated in on boards. They were, they surfed on it, surfs up baby. We gonna make it. And some caught a hold of broken pieces of the ship. But everybody, I said, everybody, that stayed in the ship. They made it to the shore. And I say to you, if you stay in the ship, if you stay in the ship, if you stay in the ship, you're gonna make it to the shores of heaven, hallelujah. If you stay in the ship, you're gonna make it to the shore where the wicked will cease from troubling. And the weary gonna be at rest. And all of the saints of the ages are gonna be there. They said, we gonna sit at his feet and be blessed. But you've gotta stay in the ship. If you don't stay in the ship, you can't be saved. We've got to stay in the ship. Now understand that you're saved and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues. But if you really wanna be saved, if you really wanna go to heaven, you've got to say, I said say, I said say, stay in the ship because he's coming as a thief in the night. The Bible said, no man knows a day or the hour. So you got to stay ready. You got to be ready. You got to live every day like he's coming today. See, I don't know when he's coming. So every day I get up and say, I'm gonna live like he's coming today. If he doesn't come today, he might come tomorrow. If he doesn't come tomorrow. But every day, I'm gonna live like he's coming today. But I'm gonna plan like he's never coming. See, we don't need to be foolish. He said, but we've got to stay in the ship. We better stay in the ship. It's not one day in and one day out, one day I'm saved, one day I'm not. I've got to stay in the ship every day. I've got to live for Jesus every day. I've got to fight the good fight of faith every day. I've got to believe that he's coming every day. The Bible said that he that endureth, who keeps on enduring to the end, the same shall be saved. I don't wanna come down to the end of the race and walk away and miss it. I'm gonna keep on enduring when I feel like it. I'm gonna do it when I don't feel like it. I'm gonna do it when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm broken, when I'm upset. I'm going to stay in the ship. He said, keep your lamps trimmed and burning bright. I was thinking about the story of the foolish virgins who let their light go out and the bridegroom came and they could not go in with him because their lamps were out. You can look around today and see that Jesus is due to come any day, any day. So we better live like he's coming today. If you sin and mess up, repent, get it right and get right back in the race. But you gotta make sure I'm ready. I don't wanna miss it. I'm going to heaven. I've got to see the city. I wanna see his face. I wanna hear him say, well done. Thou good and faithful servant. You endeared to the end and you made it into your reward. Come on in. We used to sing that song, sit down servant. Sit down servant. So I said, oh, I want to see him. Look upon his face. There to sing forever of his saving grace. See, I've been through some things. There were times where he should have took me out. He should have killed me. But he showed me his amazing grace. See, on the streets of glory, let me lift my voice. You think I'm loud now and I know I got a big mouth. But when I get to heaven, I say, oh my God, he's somewhere over there. I can't see him, but I can hear him because he's on the streets of glory. Lifting up his voice, cares are passed. Pain is passed. Disappointment is passed. Free it lasts. Free it lasts. See, Abraham Lincoln didn't set us free. Martin Luther King didn't set us free. Jesus set us free. We can sing free at last, free at last. Thank God, oh, mindy. I'm free at last. Cares all pass, home at last. Ever to rejoice. So we're going to stay ready. I'm gonna stay ready. I'm gonna stay in the ship. I'm gonna stay in the ship when I'm happy. I'm gonna stay in the ship when I'm sad. I'm gonna stay in the ship when I feel like it. I'm gonna stay in the ship when I don't feel like it. I'm gonna stay in the ship when I've got money. I'm gonna stay in the ship when I'm broke. I don't care what the station in my life. I'm staying. I'm not going anywhere. And I'm not letting nobody put me out. I'm not letting the devil. I'm not letting my enemies. I'm not letting mama and them and Roy and them. See, we can let people mess us up. I ain't letting nobody. I love my mother, but if she told me the wrong thing, I'm staying in the ship. Now I know she gonna stay in the ship. Lord, have mercy. But it's something about you've got to make up your mind. I'm not giving up. I'm not giving out. I'm not giving in. I don't care what I'm going through. I don't care. My kids are acting crazy. My boss is acting crazy. My husband is acting crazy. My wife is acting crazy. I don't care. I'm gonna stay in the ship when I'm going to glory. I'm gonna see his face in peace. Let me amodish you. Stay in the ship. Because it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Our trials, our tests, our problems, our situations will seem so small when we see God. See, in comparison to what I'm going through and to living in heaven, it doesn't mean anything. See, I'm putting all these things behind me and I'm pressing towards the mark of the high call in Christ Jesus. So whatever you do, stay in the ship. Whatever you do, stay in the race. Hey, summer, whatever you do, stay on the battlefield. Because I've got heaven in my view. I can almost see the golden streets. I can almost see the crystal fountain. I have made up my mind that nothing will stop me from seeing Jesus. Nothing will cause me to get out the ship. I am moving towards heaven. And I know that except I stay in the ship, I cannot be saved. So I'm begging you today, whatever you do, stay in the ship. We've received on this morning, you know, we can receive the word or not. We have an opportunity to say, I'm not gonna take it. I'm not gonna do it, but the choices are very different. And with each choice you make, when you reach your destination, it's a fixed destination. On the other day, my wife and I, we bought some airline tickets and we got to one part where one of us had a round trip ticket and another one had a one-way ticket. A one-way ticket will only get you where you're going, which you need a round trip, a round trip ticket to get there and get back. Now, as I listen to the message today, the question that came to my mind is where are you building? There's a parable in the scripture that talks about a man who had an option of building on a rock and he chose to build on sand. And when I think about that, perhaps somebody encouraged him to not waste a lot of time building on a rock. It takes much time to build on a rock. And somebody perhaps said to him, I know a lot of people who live over there on the sand and they happy, but that's a one-way ticket to disaster. If you're built on the rock, it's solid and it cannot be moved. Your decision has to be steadfast. I'm going to do what is best, what the Lord admonishes us to do. He said, stay with me. If you leave me, it's all over. Stay with me. Stay on the ship. So now, other people who, I said there was someone who was encouraging you, come on over here on the sand without us, we're having a good time. We're on the beach. We built it on the beach. And somebody says, don't build over there on the rock because they going through over there is difficult. They don't know what's happening from day to day and they're following someone they don't know. They're following a man called Jesus. But I want to encourage you. I want to admonish you to be sure where you're building. Now, yes, saved, but where are you building? Love the Lord, but where are you building? Admonition is my advice to you is get with Jesus and stay there. Get with Jesus and stay there. So that's what he said when he said, stay on the ship. Don't get scared. Don't get scared. Stay with the ship. Believe what the Lord has said is what is and know in your spirit that that's the best choice that you could make. So now there's a song that came out of my mind and it's an old song. Where are you building? Where are you building? Oh, where are you building on the rock, the solid rock or on the sand? Oh, where are you? One more time. For those of you who realize who you need the help of the Lord, we all need his help. Yeah. But if you're vacillating, if you can't make your mind up, you need the help of the Lord. The Lord says, I will be your strength. I'll help you in your time of trouble. Alter is open because prayer works. We don't just pray just perform a fashion. It actually works. Any witnesses? Amen. It works. Y'all see this lady right here? She believes in prayer and we talk about it from time to time at our home when a person becomes ill and they hide the illness. They don't wanna tell anybody about it. This lady right here says one of her coworkers when she got cancer, she was a Buddhist and she asked, do you mind if I pray for you? She said, if you can get a prayer through, pray the prayer. Come on somebody. See now, that ought to be your attitude when you find a deficiency in your life. If you know that you have a deficiency and you're battling with it, you need to get anybody who can pray. To pray. Prayer works. Prayer works. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Anybody here today who feel like they need some help from the Lord? I'm not gonna beg you. One, two, three. All right, you may be seated. Now you know why I did that? You know why I did that? Because this message is as plain as the nose on your face. Y'all hear me? If you can't get it from that message, you don't want it. You don't want to live over there on the sand, where the sun's shining. The house that was built upon the sand, when the rains came down and the floods came up, the house on the sand fell flat. It fell flat. And now when your house falls flat, it was intimate weather that caused it to fall flat. What you gonna do? Where you gonna live? All right, now I try to apply a song to the message. And that's why I was saying that old, old song. The reason I do that is I understand, I've talked about this before. A gateway to the brain or to the spirit of an individual is the ear. When they hear, they get it. When they hear it musically, they double get it. See, because it's something about the inner portion that God put in there for music, that causes it to give it more strength. So perhaps if you can remember it, you're probably saying that sometimes. When you're going through, where are you building? You'll remember to remind yourself that you need to build on the rock and not the sand. All right, now prepare at this time for receiving our offering before he comes. Come on, Deacon Patrick. Deacon Patrick has a testimony. Got a microphone? All right, there you are, sir. Everybody's sorry for Jesus. I thank the Lord for being here, though. I just thank the Lord for my bishop, my first lady, all the ministers in the house. I just thank how the God is doing it in a Patrick family. I just thank the Lord for making a way for us, how he's doing for us, how he's doing for us. See, we might don't see what he sees beyond. So I just thank the Lord for how he's working things out. Yeah, I was working downtown there at one point in time, but God don't preach you low. He pitched you higher. Yeah, that's correct. So on last, I've been put this application in for this job for the courthouse, because I'm an armed guard and armed guard. So I was on armed before, but I want to certify with that. I want to be armed, making more money for my family and my church. I want to pay my tithes and all that stuff. I tell my wife all the time, that's all we think about, that's all we talk about. The good thing, I said, we talk, our kids all the time, it's all about your soul. I'm important about your soul. Your soul is more important. That's where you got to go. Where you going to be turning hell or heaven. That's your choice. I think the Lord, for you, had to walk with that message today. It hit the hard line. So I think, so on the 26th, I'll be starting my new job training. God's been good. The last couple of days I was doing my tests, I've been scoring 100 on all of them. God just pitted to my ear, like, go and take that test. You already know the answers already. You've been there, you've been there before. I just thank God for that. How are you doing? Y'all pay for Christopache while she's sick. Pay for healing her body in Jesus' name, Lord. Where the Lord restored her, Lord, for that God's strength. She a strong woman. I thank the Lord for her. Because she had all my kids, all of them. Not all of them. I was there for all of my kids when I was a boy. She had them all. I thank the Lord for her parents, digging soil and sharing soil. They are amazing to me. They've been a blessing in my life. I thank the Lord for him. Because he's trained me on my digging stuff. Y'all see this stuff is clean? He's trained me on this stuff. I stayed on, I was the only one who stayed. Me and my sister Bobby, you told me I was the only one who stayed here. I know what God's gonna do. He's gonna move. He's gonna move in this situation. I'm not gonna leave this in the front lane. Now we're alone. This church gonna be always be clean. I don't care what I'm going through. What I'm gonna do. But the Lord sees me through. Lord, I thank the Lord for this church. This is a great church, a loving church, a caring church, an understanding church, a just church. You gotta just thank God for this church. When he preached you right, no man gonna take away from you. I thank the Lord for what he said to me. He brought me to this church in Jesus name. Y'all pray for the pastor family. Thank you Lord. Let me say something to you. Some people testify and there's room that some people test a lie. That's no lie. This brother, that's a testimony. I thank God for the Patrick family. Ever since we moved from 5150 down to here, they've been interested in seeing the house of God kept in a fine, fine shape. Clean and they spend many hours. Can y'all hear without? Can you say with me without? Pay. I thank the Lord for the Patrick family. Thank the Lord for their desire to please God. The Lord's gonna bless him. He's gonna continue. He's not gonna just bless them. He's gonna continue to bless them. As a man sow it. So shall he also reap. So he's in a reaping season. God bless you. All right, finished the sermon. Thank you Jesus. Also he's blessed because he's one of our faithful tide pairs. He's one of our faithful tide pairs. And the Lord rewards you. You know, the Lord don't go back on his word. The Lord means what he said. As he said, if you open up a window and pull you out of blessing, he's gonna do it. He's gonna do it. He's a man that cannot lie. He's a God that cannot lie. Let me put it like that. Hallelujah. You know, we get up here and we read this scripture. Me or Pastor Bobby read this scripture. A lot of times people say, well, I heard that scripture before. But the scripture never changes. It means the same. It means what it says. And that's what the Lord want us to understand that it will never, never change. It means what it says. The Lord says, honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruit of all thy increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and our presses shall burst out with new wine. The Lord don't want us to just to be hears. We hear the scripture, but we're not doers of the scripture. We hear it and go in one ear and go out through the other. But we have to perform that. We have to do what the word of God says. Pay those tithes and the Lord will open up a window. He'll open up a window, open up a window and pull you out of blessing that you wouldn't have room to receive. In Balakai 312 it said, bring, bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house. He said, improve me, prove me. Now hear with, said the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the winners of heaven and pull you out of blessing that there shall be not room that there shall not be room enough to receive it. The Lord is true to his word. The Lord want us to pay our tithes and on top of that, give our offering. We know the offering comes from the heart. What the Lord deserved. What shall I give to the Lord today? What shall I render to the Lord today? Then that's what we have to think about. The tithes already is his tithes, the 10%. Like I said before, he give us 90%, 90%. And the 10% he wants. But on top of that, he wants to pay, give our offering. A good offering, a good offering. You wouldn't give someone something that you wouldn't want them to give to you. You know, you wouldn't someone to give you something. You wanted the worthwhile. You wouldn't want to give the Lord a dollar. What that would do? What that would do? And the Lord has opened up a winners and pull you out of blessing. He bless you so you can give back to him. Please stand with me in Jesus' name. Let's hold our offering up to the Lord in Jesus' name. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you. We praise you, Lord God. We glorify, we magnify your name, Lord God. We come this morning, Lord God, worshiping you, Lord God. With our tithes and our offering, Lord God. In the name of Jesus, Lord, we ask that you receive it, bless it, multiply. Let it continue to meet every need, Lord God. In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. You may come break the offering. Just keep on giving. Hallelujah. We have heard a wonderful word today. Amen. How are you building? How are you building? I hope you're using gopher wood. Uh-huh. So you can stay buoyant. Hallelujah. I hope you're using everything that the Lord requires. Amen. So you can stay in the ship. Amen. Song came to mind. Oh, ship of Zion. Oh, look, ain't no danger. Ain't no danger in the water. Amen. Ain't no danger. Stay on the ship, saints of God. Amen. Stay on the ship. Hallelujah. God's protection, amen, and God's preservation is in the ship. Hallelujah. Amen, amen. Thank you, Lord, amen. Well, we're determined, amen. We're going to stay on with Jesus, amen, amen. We're going to get ready to go home. God bless you all. We love you. Amen, the Lord willing. We'll see you on Wednesday for Bible study. We'll see you back here on Sunday. God willing. Hallelujah. Come on. Violation, persecution, I'll be faithful. I'm determined to walk with Jesus. Yes, I am. Walk with me. Come on. Walk with me, Lord. Walk with me.