 that the Lord has made. Rejoice and be gladdened at the Lord. Rejoice and be gladdened at the Lord. Welcome to Shilter Faith Long Beach, hallelujah, it's Rejoice and be gladdened at the Lord. Pastor is Bishop Arlene Alexander, and our first lady, hallelujah, the beautiful, amen, Pastor Bobby Alexander, hallelujah. He's because he's worthy, come at this time. Minister Amber, amen, praise the Lord. Close our eyes and buy our heads, Lord. We just thank you today, Lord. We come before you, Lord, with a thankful heart, oh God. We thank you, Lord, that we are able to come into your house today, God. We thank you, Lord, that we are able to lift up your name, God. It is a privilege and an honor, oh God, to get to serve you, Lord, and come into your house, God. We ask you, Lord, that your presence fill this place, oh God. Speak to our hearts today, oh God, with your word, Jesus, hallelujah. Lord, we just ask you, oh God, to not let us leave the same as when we came, Lord, in the name of Jesus, amen. Thank you, bless you, Lord. Amen, we'll now have the scripture read by Dr. Sykes. And praise the Lord, everyone. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Our scripture this morning is Psalms 51 versus one through seven, amen. This is too, the print is so small, I can hardly read it, but thank you, Psalms 51. Thank you, oh, that's much better. Thank you. Have mercy upon me, oh God, according to that loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sins, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speaketh, and be clear when thou judges. Behold, I was shaping in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirous truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, thou shall make me to know thy wisdom. One more verse, purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Praise the Lord, amen, thank God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, what a mighty God we serve. Yes, we're so excited to be in the house of the Lord today. This is His house, we're standing on holy ground, and we come to give God all the praise and all the worship that is due Him. Hallelujah, come on, saints, get up. Let's give God His due, amen. Yes, put your hands together for Jesus. We worship the God who was, we worship the God who is, we worship the God who evermore will be. He opened the prison doors, He parted the raging seas. My God, He holds the victory, yeah. Destroy the Lord today, and we won't be quiet. We're gonna shout out your praise. Destroy and then slay, and we won't be quiet. We're gonna shout out, we shout out your praise. We're gonna shout out, we're gonna shout out. We shout out your praise, we won't be quiet. We're gonna shout out, we won't be quiet. We're gonna shout out, we're gonna shout out. We're gonna shout out your praise. And now we're run for giving, accepting, redeemed by His grace. Let the house of the Lord sing praise. We were the beggar guilty, now we're raw. And now we're run after, redeemed by His grace. Let the house of the Lord sing praise. And we won't, we won't be quiet. We're gonna shout out your praise. The Lord inhabits the praises of His people. House of the Lord today, our worship Lord God. There'd be a sweet smelling savor in your nostrils Lord God. Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord. Hallelujah, hallelujah, yeah. Let praises rise from the inside. From the inside of me. May, on the inside of Jesus today. Everything that has brand Zion rejoiced. Lift up, holy lift up, holy place today. Don't ever sit on your praise. Always give God all the glory and all the honor, amen. At this time we'll have our bishop come forward, amen. Because he's good, it's for Zion to praise. We need to praise our God. All right, I thought I'd get somebody to agree with me on that. See, he brought me out of darkness. Brought me into a marvelous light. Set my feet on a solid rock. And he saved my soul, amen. I wanna give God all the credit that belongs to him. All credit belongs to God. You know, you can't take your next breath unless the Lord allows it. Amen, amen. So we need to kind of recalibrate. It's good to be in the house of the Lord on today. I'm glad to be back with you on this Sunday morning. This Sunday morning has been designated as Credit Union Sunday. Amen, now I'll ask a few questions. How many of you belong to a credit union? All right, how many would like to belong to a credit union? Well, perhaps you don't know the benefit of a credit union. I'll say to you that a credit union is one of the best things that ever happened to poor people. Middle-class people, when it comes to living a great life, as the Lord has called us to, there are people who have the ability to put a stumbling block in our way. And we're gonna see a video very shortly. You can start to set that up, yes, sir. The Apostle of Shield of Faith, Apostle Henry B. Alexander. Shield of Faith has a vision for the creation of a credit union, which will be beneficial to our fellowship, our constituent churches, and also the communities in which we are serving. This institution will be the first of many in an ever-riding circle of business activities and enterprises, which will bring economic development to ourselves and to those around us. Shield of Faith Fellowship of Churches will create the credit union for the following reasons. Number one, to recycle our dollars within our own community. Each viewer is aware that so often in communities of color, the dollar seems to leave the community as quickly as possible. By creating the credit union, we're able to cause the money to remain among ourselves for a greater length of time. Number two, we wanna exercise control over financial activity within our minority communities. So often the financial institutions in our areas have served themselves and not served our best interest. Number three, we wanna make financial resources available to the Christian community, creating an institution that is familiar with and sensitive to cultural values that are particular to the Christian church who want to serve our churches. Our fourth reason for creating the credit union is to counteract redlining. So many of us are aware that financial institutions have drawn a red line around communities of color, not offering mortgages or financial services in those geographic areas. We want to green line, we want to specifically direct funds and resources to our minority communities. Number five, we want to be an example of successful entrepreneurial activity for our youth and young adults so that they can see this credit union, a successful activity which can become a pattern for their own undertakings. Number seven, we would like to create jobs for our minority youth within our own minority community so that we can hire and train and promote the careers of young people in financial services. And then the seventh and final reason is that we wanna generate wealth for our investors, for our account holders, shield of faith fellowship as a vision for a shield of faith credit union which will be fully a standalone entity providing financial resources and opportunities to you, to those that you love, to all within the Christian community and minority communities. We want your support, we want your participation as we set out to be innovative, to take control of our own financial best interests and provide the power of those. Now that makes it very clear what benefits are of belonging to a credit union and it's been pointed out wherever you live, if you're purchasing property, they've drawn a red line around you to make sure you pay a higher interest than everybody else. They're very selective and I won't call the name of our mortgage holder but they continue to be unkind to the church and our interest is probably higher than most mortgages at this particular time. It hasn't always been that way but they raised it and we have several more years to pay on this property. I'll share with you, this building cost us right at one million dollars and we're now down to 300,000 dollars. Come on, come on, praise him, thank him. He provides, he makes ways, he opens doors, he gives us wisdom and we thank him for what he's done. This is not a small thing. This is a huge thing. Now, in case you don't know, there are groups that go around buying property. They put their funds together and they're buying up all the property and I'm afraid that if we don't find a way that our descendants will not be able to ever have what they call the American dream, a house with a picket fence and so forth. So I wanna invite you and I want to encourage you to fill out one of these slips. They could pass these out if you would. This slip is a slip that's asking if you would be interested in becoming a part of a credit union. Now, for those of you with a phone, you can scan the back on the back at the bottom. You can scan that and you can fill it out on your phone. Amen. Somebody said, well, this is church time, why are we talking business? Money equals ministry. I said money equals ministry. You got no money, you got no ministry. Amen. Along with the price of this building, we've spent many, many thousands of dollars on equipment. Amen. And it's all because God has made it possible for us. We want to get the best for our money in everything that we do. See, the Lord has given us wisdom in that. You don't just give the church's money away. We strive very hard to make sure that the ties and the offering that comes into this church goes to this building, to this property. And to the property next door. I said to the property next door. To the property next door next year. Amen. Now, if the Lord says the same, we have been offered to purchase that building next door. Boy, y'all quiet, boy, y'all quiet. When it comes to dollars and cents, sometimes people get quiet. But the Lord has opened the door. The Lord has made a way. Now, I've been praying on that building ever since we've been here. And the owner says, I want you to have first choice. He said, because these two properties belong together. Now, if we don't buy that building, we'll have to, we might have to find a way to find other parking, because that parking may not be available to us at a later date. So now, I want to encourage you. Don't think that it's something beyond your capability. You can belong to a credit union if you find some credit union that is willing to embrace you. Come on, somebody. All right, so now, the Shield of Faith Fellowship of Churches International. We're doing this collectively. This is not just local, but it's collectively. All across the country and around the world, if God says the same. So I want to encourage you each to fill this out and get that, when you have a hard copy like this, you need to get that to me as soon as possible because I'll be getting them over to the fellowship headquarters. All right, and if you do it by phone, it goes immediately into the data. All right, now that business is over, we'll get down to business, amen. Let me just say, I'm so glad to be back in the house of the Lord with you on today after being away for a couple of Sundays. It's so good to come back and see the people of God still standing for the truth, holding on to God's unchanging hand and taking care of God's business. And I want to thank all of you who had a hand in and carry on the ministry in my absence. I want to thank you with a heartfelt thank you. At this time, we're gonna have Sister Shy Gilliam. She's coming with a song, The Solo of Good Morning. Let's receive her as she comes with a hearty amen. God bless you, Sister Shy. Hallelujah, praise the Lord, makes no difference. All right. What you're going through, you are gonna make it. God's gonna see you through. Hold your head up, put a smile on your face. This is another test, it won't last always. So get ready, get ready for your blessing. For your blessing, for your blessing. Let me encourage you, it's gonna be all right. Troubles and trials come to make you strong. Keep on, you keep holding on. So get ready for your blessing. For your blessing, get ready for your blessing. How many know God's got a blessing with your name on it? Sing it with me. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. If you really believe me, sing it. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. Sing it with me, say. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. With your name on it. With your name on it. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. Say with my name on it. With my name on it. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing. With my name only, with my name only. God's got a blessing. God's got a blessing, God's got a blessing, God's got a blessing, God's got a blessing with my name on it. Thank you Jesus. God a blessing, blessing with my name on it. And I'm assured, one of his children's name, y'all talk to me. If we live right, we follow his commandments. If we're into Jesus. Some people say, well I ain't into all of that. If you're into Jesus, God's got a blessing with your name on it. I'm sure, sure, sure that that is the truth. And I bless God. I praise God. Every blessing that he's bestowed upon me, all of his loving kindness. Sometimes as we hear preachers, as they preach, we look at them as if they're different than the rest of us. Because a preacher proclaims the Word of God, everybody thinks he walks on a cloud. But it's not so. And it's something that we should make known to everybody that the Lord holds us all responsible for his Word that is sent to his people. Every time we come to church, we come to church with purpose. Hello? And our purpose is not to see who's here. Not to see what the first lady's going to have on. We do that, but that's not our main purpose. We come to church so that the Lord may be able to get a hold of our hearts. Get a hold of our mind. Get a hold of our attitudes. Get a hold of our person. And when God finds the time to get us where we're on his time schedule, the blessings will pour out on you. Today, the topic of my message today is the wait is over. The wait is over. It's your time. Anybody believe that? Can you embrace that? Know that you've stood the test. Know that you've walked with God faithfully. Know that you've given yourself to the building of the Kingdom of God. Know that you yield your spirit to God's Word for us personally. It's your time. In the book of Psalms, or Psalm number 51, should I say, the Word for devotional reading on this morning, it talks to us concerning our guilt, our guilt of committing sin. Who am I talking to? Everybody. Everybody. The first lady in my regular TV shows that we look at is Court TV. And as we watch people who are in court who are not a part of the judicial system, we get a chance to see them in a suspended point. And you can see the intensity on their face. And they recognize the fact that they're guilty of trespassing. And they're wondering and waiting to find out what the judge is going to sentence them to. They want to know what their future is going to be. And if they're wise, they'll throw themselves at the feet of the judge and ask for mercy. Can anybody hear me? See, because the judge has power. And in the courtroom, the judge has all power. And when we live our lives, we're being judged by the king of kings. And the Lord of lords, the creator of heaven and earth, who has all power over everything. So when we come to the house of God, we come with an attentive ear. We come to this house to say, Lord, what would you say to me to cost me to be in the center of your will? I don't want to be to the left or to the right. But I want to be right in the center of your will. So Lord, you tell me. You show me what you would have me to be. Psalm 51, it says, verse 1, said, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercy, blood out my transgressions. Blood out my transgressions. Now, we've all sinned. And it is because of the nature that we were born into. We were born in sin. We were shaping in iniquity. We were doomed for punishment of our four parents. Adam and Eve and everybody since then have been under the curse that God put on mankind. So we understand. Everyone in their right mind understands that they owe God what he requires of us. My pastor, when I was a boy, used to say, You can't give God a 50 cent piece. And tell him it's a $5 bill. You need to pay up what you owe. And we all owe our allegiance to our God and our Savior. So David, this song was written by David. He said, Lord, you know who I am. You see my sinful condition. He said, I'm not coming to you trying to pretend that I'm not guilty. I did it. I trust past. He said, so Lord, what I want to do is I don't want to argue. I don't want to pretend that things are not the way they actually are. Because I know you know. You know who I am. Every last one of us, we know us. We know us. You know who you are. A member of this church when I was new as a pastor here. And they said to me, you need to put so and so out. And I said to them, I'm not into putting out business. Not out of the church. I said, but if I did, if I put them out, I'd have to put you out too. I don't know who you are. I don't know what you've been doing. But I know you've done something that's trust past against the word of God. And so we have to own who we are. Come on somebody. And so when we own who we are, we're able to go before God and say, Lord, have mercy on me according to the love and kindness that you have. I need you to embrace me according to the multitude of your tender mercy. I found you to be a wonderful God who has a tender mercy towards sinners. Come on somebody. It's your time when you know that you're a sinner and you're fast up to and you say, Lord, I trust past against you and I need you in my life. I need you to straighten my stuff out. So I come to you and say, have mercy. I don't come arrogant. My shoulders thrown back talking trash. Have mercy on me. According to my loving kindness, according to the multitude of that tender mercy, blot out my transgressions. He said, Lord, I need you to erase all of this stuff that I've done. He said, I can't take it back, but I need it to be removed. He said, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sins. For I acknowledge my transgression. Can you live up to who you are? Can you admit who you are? I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me. He said, I know I have sin and I know I don't deserve your grace. I don't deserve your mercy, but I'm asking you please give me the mercy. Give me the grace that I need. I acknowledge my sins, transgressions and my sins are ever before. My sins follow me wherever I go. I turn and toss on my bed at night knowing I'm not in your will. Against thee, thee only have my sin and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightst be justified when thou speaketh and be clear when thou judges. Verse 5 said, Lord, I'm not making excuses. I'm just stating what is that is. He said, behold, I was shaping in iniquity. He said, when I came here from my mother's womb, I was jacked up from the floor. I was shaping in iniquity and in sin that my mother conceived me. But he said, Lord, I understand that you desire truth in the inward part. He said, you require that I tell you the truth about who I am. I'm required to tell you the truth about what I've done. I'm required to tell you of everything that's a mess in my life because you know it anyway. Behold, thou desire truth in the inward part and in the hidden part. Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. He said, Lord, I want you to work on my heart, work on my spirit. Get a control of my mind and help me to get some sense. Help me to get some sense. Wisdom, wisdom. You know wisdom will keep you out of trouble. See, the reason you get in trouble is because you just flying around like a little butterfly, whatever comes, whatever happens, whatever goes. I'm for it. I'll have two pounds of it. You need wisdom. Every time you fall is because of some simple D you jumped into. Come on, somebody. Or you fell into if you want to go that way. Yes, we fall into sin sometimes, but sometimes y'all know. Dive off the high diving board right into sin. Come on, somebody. We got to tell it like it is. He said, Lord, behold, thou desire truth in the inward part and in the hidden part. Thou shalt make me to know what to do. Anybody know what to do when Satan comes? Not here, not now, not never. I don't belong to you. I belong to God. I purchased my soul salvation at Calvary and you can't make me do it. You're not my boss anymore. I belong to God and he tells me what to do. He gives me the wisdom to stay out of trouble and I'm going to stand on that. So David said, Lord, I can't fool you. Couldn't if I wanted to. He said, so I'm asking you for help. I'm asking you, Lord, for relief. I confess, I confess who I am. So he said, purge me with his and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be wider than snow. He said, Lord, you've got the power. You know all about me and I'm saying to you, it's my fault. I'll take the blame. He said, but Lord, I don't want you to leave me in this spot. I need you to wrap your arms around me and embrace me. I need you to reach out a hand and pull me up from the gutter out of the muck and the mire and cause me to have sense enough to walk with you. Wash me and I shall be wider, wider, wider than snow. Hallelujah. How do you get wider than snow? Be watched by Jesus. Come on. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. All right. Now we're going to go to second Corinthians. Chapter five. Second Corinthians. Two Corinthians. Chapter five. Inside joke. Some of you get it. And here we find Paul. The apostle Paul explaining to people what ministry is really about, what the apostle Paul wants to point out to all the churchgoing folks, all of you, all of us. He wants to point out to us that there is a better life that can be lived. In our society today, as we go to and fro in the community, and we see people who are lost, lost, lost. And it looks like there's no hope for them. Each and every one of us were in a condition that we were unacceptable to God. And sometimes we're not too kind. We look down on people who are homeless, without food, without proper clothing, and we judge them. Well, the apostle said in verse number 17 that there is a way that we can be reclaimed. He says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Anybody who is in Christ is a new creature. That means you stop your sinning in a willful way. If you're in Christ, then Christ is in you. And if Christ is in you, you don't have the liberty. You don't have the freedom to do whatever you want. You can't say, it's my life and I'll do what I want with it. Not if you belong to Christ. If you're in Christ, you're a new creature. If you're in Christ, you got to stop lying. If you're in Christ, you got to stop stealing and fornicating. You got to stop cheating on your taxes. If you're in Christ, you're a new creature. The things I used to do, I don't do that stuff no more. Come on, somebody. Somebody needed to be able to say that when I found Jesus and Jesus came into my heart, He washed me clean. He set me free. He washed me whiter than snow. And that's stuff I used to do. I quit doing that. Come on, somebody. If you want to go to heaven, you got to be in Christ. And Christ has got to be in you. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Hallelujah. Behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God who have reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. He reconciled us. He brought us back. See, God's intention was for man to have everlasting life in the garden. Somebody made a foolish act, I won't say a mistake, a foolish act against God. And God said, I ain't having it. So you can't pull that knot up in here. He said, I know your thoughts are far off. I know your thoughts before it hits your head. He said, so you can't fool me. You did it and you did it in rebellion against what I said. So He said, because you're my greatest creation, you understand your God's greatest creation. Anybody? Can I get a knot? You don't have to say that. You just knot. You're God's greatest creation. And He says to the devil, you're not having what I made for my glory. He said, I call them and I'll chase them. I'll bring them back to me and they'll become a friend of mine again. That's why we can say, I'm a friend of God. I'm a friend of God. He calls me friend because I'm a new creature. He's made me new. Verse 19 to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing the trespasses unto them. I got to stop right there. Come on somebody. Somebody ought to be shouting right now. Somebody ought to be praising God for deliverance from what you were caught up in, what you got yourself in that you couldn't get yourself out. You got to appreciate the fact that it was just by God's mercy. He brought you out and He said, I've gone to Calvary for you. I purchased your soul at Calvary. And He said, I'm not going to even charge you for what you've done. Let's think for a minute. Come on somebody. Come on somebody. We were all rascals. Come on somebody. Not little rascals either. We were all big rascals. And we did all kind of crazy stuff. All kind of things that was against God. God said, don't you say I'm going to do it anyhow. God said, you better not. You can't tell me I'm going to do it. It's my life. It's your death too. Not imputing their trespasses unto them. And has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Reconciliation means to come back together and be friends again. Oh y'all, I can't believe y'all was quiet on that. When you lose a friend, you need to be excited when y'all make up. I see some stubbornness. I ain't saying nothing till he say something. And when he say something, I ain't sure what I'm going to say. Now you can do that with your next door neighbor. Or your mate. You can't do that with God. You ain't got no sense if you do that with God. See, they have pulpit decorum. They say you're not ever supposed to say people are stupid. That's stupid. When you know that all the chips are down. And you don't have any way to win. How are you going to stand against the king of kings? And the Lord of lords, the creator of heaven and earth. The one who made you. How are you going to stand and tell him what you ain't going to do? That don't make sense to me. See, you know what I want? I want him to not impute my trespasses. I've sinned. I've come short of the glory of God. More than once. More than twice. A bunch of times. We've all sinned. You sinned every day. But you need to get to the place where you love God enough. Then you come before him and say, Lord, I want you to bless me. I want you to give me strength. I want you to direct my path, speak to my heart. And cause my heart to embrace you with everything I am. With everything I got. Lord, I need you. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Some of y'all might wish you didn't come today. But this is what the Lord said. The Lord gave this to me for today. So now what Paul is saying to the church. And this is who this is going to, the church. He said, now, then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us. He said, I'm an ambassador for Christ. He said, you're a preacher. Your minister is an ambassador for Christ Jesus. Uh oh. You know, there's some people who do themselves a great disservice by dishonoring the ambassador God has sent to them. An ambassador is to be honored. See, because the ambassador doesn't come to you telling you what the ambassador wants to say. He says to you what God said. And whatever God says out of whoever's mouth it comes, you better honor that. He said, as an ambassador, I beseech you. You know what beseech means? I beg you. I beg you over and over again. Why don't you come back into the fold? Why don't you let the Lord ground your feet again on the solid rock that you stood on before? Why don't you do it? Come on back. Come on back. Come on back. God has not shut the door. I want to encourage you. Don't be tricked by the devil. Do you know that the devil is a liar? How can you tell when the devil's lying? When his mouth is moving. Anytime the devil's talking, it ain't nothing but a lie. And he wants you to throw your hands up in despair. Had a man say to me one time, he says, I want to be saved. And I've tried it. But it's too hard. He said, I just can't make it. He was sincere. What I said to him is something along this line, you're not the only one who's having a hard time. You're not the only one who's missing the mark. But God has grace. Come on somebody. God's got grace. He's got mercy. And you come at him right. You come at him with a repentant heart. Say, Lord, I'm sorry for the sins I've done. Lord, you please forgive me. And I'll walk with you to your saving grace. Just take me back. God did beseech you by us. God's calling you by the preacher who stands in the pulpit. We pray you in Christ's stead. We pray you in Christ's stead. To be ye reconciled to God. Now, if you read past that too quickly, you'll miss the true essence. He said, we pray you in Christ's stead. We pray for you instead of Jesus Christ. We pray for you for Jesus. That you be reconciled to God. That you become back in relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, you know what that's going to require? It's going to be required that you have humility. That you're able to humble yourself. Humble yourself. Tell yourself the truth. You ain't that of such a much. Humble yourself. Far before Jesus' feet and say, Lord, I'm nothing without you. I can't live it without you. Verse 21 said, for he hath made him to be sin for us. He said, you need to be reconciled. You need to come back to Jesus. Because he hath made him to be sin. It didn't say that he sinned for us. But he made him to be sin. I make this to be a biscuit for you. Now, what that requires is, you've got to give your will to God. Like Jesus said, Jesus said, Lord, not my will, but your will be done. That's what he said when he was on his way to the cross to give his life, to shed his blood, that you might be saved throughout all of eternity. Before he went to the cross, there was no thing, no thing, not a thing, that was able to take our sins away. He said, he became sin for us who knew no sin. The man who knew no sin, he became sin to pay the bill for your trespassing. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him, in Jesus. We become the righteousness of God. Then we go to the second, two verses in chapter number six. Chapter number six begins, we then as workers together with him beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. So what he's saying there is these last verses we've just spoken of in chapter five. He says, you have a great opportunity to get it right. You got a great opportunity to get your misunderstanding, your hard-headed stuff. You got a chance to get it right. God's got grace to cover. God's got grace to cover. I'll say it again. God has grace. God has grace to cover whoever you are and whatever you've done. You just got to break yourself down and say, Lord, you're my leader. You're my savior. I bless your name. And I ask for forgiveness. I repent of my wrongdoing. And Lord, I'll never do it again. You embrace me, Lord. And I'll thank you. I'll praise you for the rest of my days. So what we find is the remedy is that we're going to have to make a decision. Understand, ministers are coworkers with God. You hear me? Y'all hear me? When I'm talking, I'm just not talking off the top of my head. I'm not making this up. There is a place that burns with fire and brimstones throughout all of eternity. And I didn't make that up. On the other hand, there's a place called heaven. Come on, somebody. Aren't you glad there's a place called heaven? Lord, don't you want to go to heaven to be with the Lord? Oh, hallelujah. Thank God that there's mercy. Thank God there's grace that covers a multitude of sins. And it's grace that is greater than all my sins. Come on, somebody. I love that song. Marvellous grace of our loving Lord. Grace that exceeds our guilt and our shame. Yonder on Calvary's cross was poured. There where the blood of our Lamb, the Lord's Lamb was slain. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all my sins. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all my sins. All the sins that I've just passed against. All the things I did in spite of knowing it was wrong. I said, I'm going to do it anyway. There's grace that covers all of that. So Paul said, now when the preacher tells you that, he's working with God, but you've got to make a decision. Eloick, it comes down to your decision. Come to church. Come to church. Come to church. Not able to come to a decision. And we sing it every Sunday. When we get ready to leave, we say I'm determined to walk with Jesus. I'm determined to walk with Jesus. That means nothing's going to stop me from walking with Jesus. I'm determined to walk with Jesus through hard trials, through tribulation, through persecution. I'm going to be faithful. I'm determined. You can't turn me around. You can't stop me. You can't talk me out of it. You can't shame me enough. I'm determined to walk with Jesus. Oh, he's the best deal going. Hallelujah. He offers eternal life. Hallelujah. I'm about to make myself happy, Sister First Lady. Hallelujah. God is a wonderful God. He's a loving God. He's not willing that any should perish, but all should come to everlasting life. Come on somebody. The second verse said, while he said, I have heard thee in a time accepted. And in the day of salvation, have I secured you. And that word means to run to, to run to support, to help or relieve when in difficulty. The Lord just says, I heard you. I heard your cry for mercy. I heard your cry for grace. He said, and grace has been extended. He said, I've heard thee in times, in times accepted. And in the day of salvation, I have secured thee. He said, behold, now is the accepted time. Now. Now is the accepted time. He said, you got to open door, run through it. It's open for you with all your sin, all your trespasses. He said, come on, run on in this house. Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Thank God for a day. Thank God for this day. Thank God for this day. There is an accepted time to receive the grace and the mercy of God. Somebody ought to save men. Somebody ought to praise him. Somebody ought to stand up. Stand on your feet. Come on. Let's give him glory. Come on. Stand up. Stand up. Stand up. Stand up. Howling. I was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in. Howling. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. This is the accepted time. He said, it's your time. It's your time. It's your time. Look, getting us ready for that red, that red day. Get us ready for that. Everything has already been, this past week, my daughter Alicia and her husband Charles was in town and they left Saturday morning. And they had me look at a movie called End Time. It was a sci-fi movie. Now I usually don't watch sci-fi movies. If the mom got to watch this, she got to watch this. So I went on to watch the movie. And in watching that movie, it gave me a spiritual overtone to it. And what happened is that a person, every person that's born is given 25 years only. And the only way they can get more time is by doing a deed or something. Add it to their lives or they steal it or whatever. And what happened is that it was like current currency. Every time you drive somewhere, you have to pay in time. Every time you do something else, you see that? You have to pay in time since they ever have seen the movie. And this is what Jesus is trying to tell us today. We only have a certain amount of time to get ourselves together. And as I discussed this with Lisa and Charles, they were talking, I said, you know, that's a spiritual overtone to that movie. I don't know who makes this movie. But the thing about it, God gave us a certain amount of time. I don't know how many years. Some of us got almost 90 years. Some of us got 80 some years. Some of us got 70 some years. Some of us got 10 years. Some of us got less than that. We don't know how much time we got. But what we got to do is get it right at the time that God has given us. Because you came born no time in this time. And you can't steal no time. Come on, come on. So God has given us a time. And the time is now to do what we have to do. And we have to repent. We have to do like David said. I've done wrong. Pastor said something about us being rascals. Some of us are still rascals. And what do I mean by that? We got hatred. Mother, mother, you can sit down. Mother, you can sit down. Mother Ross, you can sit down. You know, after you get almost 90 years old, you deserve to sit down, right? Even 80 some years old, you deserve to sit down some time. No, you ain't eating yet. But the thing about it, some of us are still rascals. We're born again rascals. What do I mean by that? We're not still. We might not lie. We might not phonicate. But we have an humble ourselves before God like we should. We do this and we do that. One is one of my faith in the Bible. And every time I pray, I pray that chapter. I pray that chapter because I don't want it going to happen. So what we got to do is humble ourselves before God. Now I don't know if we have anybody in here who don't know the Lord as their savior. Is there anybody in this building who don't know the Lord as their savior? If it is, you need to use your time wisely. You need to come up now and ask God to forgive you. Give back time and let the Lord fill you with the Holy Ghost. Amen, because it's your time. It's your time. And the way the world is going now, you don't know what is your time. It's up. And in this movie, when a time is up, the person dies. And they die. They can be minutes from reaching their destination. Like in the scene, there was one scene a mother was going to visit her son. And even when you pay your loan, you pay your loans in time. She paid her loans in time. And she didn't have enough minutes to catch the bus to go meet her son. So she had to run to try. And she got it. She saw her son. She was saying, son, son. He was saying, mother, mother. He ran as soon as he grabbed her, she died. God has given us time. We ain't got all the time in the world. And we got to stop this foolishness that we're doing. We got to get it right with God. We got to choose. And get it right with God. God won us. He loves us. But the thing about God, in the movie there was no grace, but the thing about God, there is grace. There's the mercies of God. He's giving us time to come to Him. He's giving us time to repent. He's giving us time to get ourselves right. Because time is winding up. He's soon to come. If anybody needs to come before God and confess of their sins, ask God to wash me, purge me with His help. Purge me. I need to be purged. I want you to come to the altar now. It's anything in your life. Anything in your life that's not right before God. Get it right. Get it right. You have time now to get it right. You have time to get it right. Get it right before God. God wants us to get it right. He wants us all to be in heaven. He wants us all to be in heaven. Hallelujah. Come before the Lord, come before the Lord, come before the Lord. Please reach it out. Take my hand. That's what the Lord is saying. Repair. I am here, I'm here for you supply all your needs and you say I know but tomorrow is so much easier to say Choose so you like what you choose. Don't just turn. Yeah, come on today Thank you, Lord Thank you, Lord All God want is a repentance heart That's all he wants David was a man at the God's own heart Even though all God forgave him because he came with a repentance heart He came with a repentance heart. He acknowledged what he had done wrong He acknowledged that he had sinned before God. He says against you only have a sin We don't realize that when we see and we sin against God, it's not against man It's not against somebody else. It's against God So God is the one saying against God when we do wrong So we have to acknowledge that when we do wrong, it's not against man It's not against God's health, but it's against God And you don't want God to be mad and upset at you. You don't want God to be angry at you So that's why we have to come to him with a forgiving heart a repentance heart and ask him forgive us And guess what like Bishop said he would do it if you come to him with a prince heart He knows your heart, but if you come to him have hearted, he's not gonna forgive you You got to have a repentance heart in order for God to give you a man Amen, we thank God for this wonderful message and we thank you Lord for getting us ready for heaven Oh, I welcome messengers like this. I enjoy Realize that God is pleading with us He's begging us to get ourselves together for him. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah It's just say he's about to make it my own self happy. I was almost about to make myself happy I'm about to make my self happy doing the altar call Hallelujah, hallelujah, and just remember Your time Your wait is over. It's your time Receive the offering or receive the offering Boy, that's hard going into the offering. No, it's not because that's also part of God's time That's right because we don't know when God what's gonna happen and we can't take it with us That's right. That's right. So we might as well give it to a worthy cause And when you give it to a worthy cause God bless you over and over and over and over again So we're now gonna raise our offering. So those who have an offering we Everybody should have an offering Even if it's two pennies two mice Everybody should have something to give to the Lord So we want you to raise your offering. It's time for tithing offering and Raise your office stand and raise your office. If you don't have anything still stand Maybe the Lord will give you something next time Tell the Lord Lord. I want to give an offering. I'm tired of going to church and I haven't any money to give in the offering Stop buying that burger stop buying those cigarettes Stop buying all the other stuff you buy coffee stop going to the nail salon and all that kind of stuff They have something to give to the Lord. Amen Because guess what if you give to the Lord, he's gonna give you more Then you go to the whatever you want to go I heard bitch of TD jakes on last night. He was talking about Billionaires, you know, he knows a lot of billionaires in it in his life They don't try to front what they don't have They walk around with jeans and this and that they don't care the most expensive person all that kind of stuff They don't care to all the name brand stuff, but he said poor people They want all that name brand stuff They're the one walk around cuz they're trying to prove something God knows what you got. I know what you got when you try to prove something You don't have to prove nothing. You got money But if you ain't got no money you walk around with the biggest bag Gucci bag $250 $200 cuz you ain't got nothing But if you got something God will bless you Amen to have for you don't have to front. Amen, but if you give to God, guess what? He will give you more and more and more and then you go buy that Gucci bag or whatever you want. Amen So raise your office for the Lord and mine is with Bishop father in the name of Jesus. We thank you We praise you We honor you For the finances that you have blessed us with that we're able to give to your service boy God for God that we're able to give and you promise that you will give us back Double triple whatever and we sow into your service that you will give back to us And how much we sow is how much you're going to give us back and we thank you We praise you we bless you in Jesus name. Amen Those in media land if you would like to give you can give by give a fight. I Think it's on the screen you give by give a fight till a face long beach You can give by mail 4934 long beach, will apart long beach, California 90805 Or you can drop it through come by a building and drop it through at 5 and we'll still get it But give up to the Lord When you show up to the Lord, you would never go under The Lord for our visitors, I see some people we don't use to see we thank the Lord for you being here with us We praise you and hope you come back to be with us. We thank you Lord for our visitor back there Who's really not a visitor But you haven't been here in so long, but he's not a visitor. We glad to see you young man We want you to come back and be with us more regularly when you're off on Sunday I know you work Sunday, but we glad to see you. Amen. Amen without further ado return to service Oh, oh, there's food upstairs. That's why some of my members are not in here today Because they're up somebody has blessed that church with some good food So there's food upstairs that he's a good cook. It's Elvis Ross's Son-in-law Ella Ross is son-in-law So there's good food up there. So those who want to have some food can go upstairs and be taken what we have a man Man All right, let me do this Honored today to have in our midst. Oh, Mother Ross. I forgot a Young lady that I've known for all of my life and stand up Mother Ross This is elder Ross Mother Bishop Ross mother and my sister man and When I was a just a little boy She was like my mother y'all know how older sisters do the lot falls on on you to To help with the kids And I remember sister Ross washing my little face Before I went to Sunday school on Sunday morning. All right, Dr. Sikes don't make me hurt you Amen, and that's my other sister Dr. Sikes Let me let's have a microphone Thank you. All right God bless you mother Ross have some remarks Oh good, and how good and how pleasant it is for To join themselves together Magnify the Lord for he is good. Yes. He is mercy endureth for him. Yes Because he first loved me Yeah, I thank God when I was seven years old. He filled me with the Holy Ghost And other times All right, all right I want to say that sister Ross helped me receive the Holy Ghost She helped so many people receive the Holy Ghost Haven't the Lord's gonna say well done. You're dead Good job, and I thank her I thank the Lord, but I thank her because she allowed the Lord to use her Amen Now they say old soldiers never die They just fade away Old soldiers never die. Old soldiers of the Lord. They just go into his presence Amen, we're not we're not trying to see you leave here. I want to see you get to be 90 at least All right, you hanging there. All right Hey, you don't take up that much room So you you need to live another year so we can celebrate your 90th birthday Amen, I I thank God for my family The Lord has blessed us And the Lord has given us a long life And I I just praise the Lord for that the thing I can attribute it to is righteousness The scripture says Bishop Arling didn't say it the scripture said righteousness exalts a nation But sin is a reproach to any people And when you live right for God Come on somebody Some people say I'm I'm old and I don't know why I'm still here You're still here because you did what the Lord said do and the Lord is using you still the Lord's still using her Y'all y'all see she's trying to get away almost I was waiting for her to go All right. God bless you. Let let us stand. I'm so excited for all of you who are here I praise the Lord For the love that I feel in this building Amen, this is truly a house of God And the house of God occupies God's people Who are the best people in the world? All right Sister Marilyn come on Praise the Lord. Amen I'm so glad I know it's my time I am I'm so glad bishop that I know it's my time. I ain't waiting no longer hallelujah Because I'm determined And I'll be faithful God bless you. I will see you next week. Have a wonderful week hallelujah