 This is the day the Lord has made. It's time for worship. Come on, let's stand to our feet and give the Lord some praise. Come on, let's look at what you've done. It's Jesus time, let's look at how you've done. Pleasure and welcome to Jesus, Bishop Arling Alexander. The first lady is Pastor Bobby Alexander. Hallelujah. We are so grateful that you came here this morning to worship with us. I feel for you for where the spirit of the Lord is. So come on, come out and know how much you feel, how grateful you are for all he's done for Jesus. Well, let's receive, evangelists. Praise the Lord. What a mighty God we serve. Hallelujah, his ear is open to our cry. The Lord loves us. He loves us so much that he went to the cross and he died that we might have eternal life with him in heaven. Let's praise him. Father in the name of Jesus, hallelujah. Lord, we stand in your presence and we honor you today. Hallelujah, we lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting, hallelujah. Our savior, you're our friend, you're our kuiah. Thank you, Lord, because you died on the cross. For our sins, you died that we might have eternal life. Thank you, Lord, you put your Holy Spirit within us, hallelujah. You made us your children. Praise your name. We came to lift you up. We came to exalt you, hallelujah, hallelujah. All our praise, all of our honor belongs to you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah, bless our service today, Lord. Have your way, have your way. In our soul, in the name of Jesus, be glorified. I came to glorify your holy name. We came to bless you and thank you and honor you. Save, Lord, those who are not saved. Saved by your power divine. Oh, you came and you have seek and saved those who are lost. Thank you, Lord, save, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Add to this church, Lord, and such it should be saved. In the name of Jesus, be glorified. Speak to our hearts today, Lord. We came to hear your word. Oh, God, hallelujah. Our hearts are open to your call, your require, to your cry. Whatever you have for us, our hearts open to receive it in the name of Jesus, hallelujah. We honor you, Lord. We bow in your presence, hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah in Jesus' name. Be glorified, Lord, until that day when you to call us home, where we can be with you forever through our eternity. Help us to live holy and righteous and obey your word completely in Jesus. Amashaya, in Jesus' name. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Ha-ha, Amashaya. Glory, hallelujah. We honor you. We bless your holy name. In Jesus' name we pray. Thank you, Jesus. Amen, thank God. Alamo shakaya. Thank you, Father. Praise the Lord, thanks. I'll be reading it to you here in Galatians, chapter 6, verses 7 through 10. It says, be not deceived. God is not mocked. For what sort of a man sow it? That's shell he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh, shell of the flesh, reap corruption. But he that sows to the spirit, shell of the spirit, reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing. For in due season, in due season, we shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men. Especially, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. May the Lord have a blessing and read it to you here in all this word. Hallelujah. Jesus, I'll never forget what you've done for me. Hallelujah. And so, today I give you all the glory and all of the praise. All of the honor. We bless your holy name this morning, Jesus. It is to you, I give the glory. It is to you, I give. For you have done so much for me. And I will. Your name, bless your cheese. Yes, blessing. Don't be so quick to give a blessing to Lord. Witness of Jesus and all that he has done for me. My soul cries out, hallelujah. Thank God for blessing me. Hallelujah, hallelujah in saving me. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Our Father with art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven, give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us of our debts as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. But thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen, hallelujah, hallowed be thy name. Sing, king, cheese, you're the name. Hallelujah, break our walls down. Break our walls, I want the Lord to do what he has for us today, spirit breakout, spirit breakout. Heaven come down, heather panted after the water broke so my soul, longeth after thee, Lord Jesus. In the beauty of your holiness, Lord God. And I long in your prayers for you. And I long just to be close to you. Just to be close to you. And I, in the beauty, our short are almost set to you. In the beauty of your holy soul. We praise you Lord God, we glorify you. You have your way, Jesus. Let's stand, let's all stand. What a wonderful song that expresses the feelings of God's people. We long to be in His presence. Oh, when we think about how God has been so gracious, been merciful, so kind to us. Open doors that seem to have been closed permanently. And when we understand that He cares so much for us. Thank you, Jesus. It's nothing like being close to the one that we love. So I'm gonna, come on, ask you. Come on, let's make love to Jesus right now. Raise a praise, come on, raise a praise. Hallelujah, hallelujah. All your great praise. Nobody like your God, hallelujah, hallelujah. Your mighty, oh God. Your tender, your loving, oh God. Give Him praise, give Him praise. Thank you, Lord, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, hallelujah. He's great, He's great, He's great, He's great, He's great, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Lord. Hallelujah, hallelujah, thank you, Jesus. You may be seated. Thank you, Lord, thank you, Jesus. The Lord is in this place. The Lord is here, amen. We thank God, hallelujah, hallelujah. It's good to be back in the house of the Lord on this morning. God has been so good to us. He's allowed us to go from this place and He's protected us with His angels. Through the whole week, the Lord has been by our side. He's walked with us, He's led us all along the way. And we thank God for His loving kindness. I'm delighted to see each of you who are here today. And I'm excited also about those who are joining us by way of media. We thank the Lord for each of you who come to be with us on our Sunday morning servers. God is greatly to be praised and we bless His name. I'm gonna call it this time Elder Ross. He's gonna come and make a short presentation and then we'll have our solo for the morning by Sister Amber Weiss. Praise the Lord, everybody. Do you love Him today? I tell you, I could have kept on doing what we were doing. It's nothing like being in the presence of the King. And we have planned and we're making plans for activities for our young people and for our youth. We believe that the young people should know about the things of God. We believe the young people should know about worshiping God and praising God and blessing God. We believe that the young people should know that they should honor their mother and their father. See these things, they don't just know by themselves, we have to teach them. We have to put it in them. But we have to show them there are benefits for serving Jesus. He's a good God and we will, we want to provide something that will, that is geared towards them and for them. So starting next Sunday, we'll be meeting with the young people. We'll be meeting three consecutive Sundays for each service at one, a few minutes after each service, I'm sorry, and we will be one hour. One hour and after that we'll have refreshments for the children and for the youth and even probably a few parents if you sneak in you might catch a few crumbs. But we want it to be an excellent time for them. I believe if we don't catch the youth now we'll never catch him. We say they're the church of the future. They're the church of today. We don't have to wait for the future. We can teach them and groom them and use them in the kingdom today. I know as a young person, as a young boy growing up in church and pastor as well, they didn't wait until you got 18 before they started using you in church. If you could do anything, they'd let you do it in Jesus' name. And so that's what we want to do for our children. We believe that they will be blessed. We'll believe that they will have a good time. So parents, we ask you to please bring your children and the children include anybody that can walk and talk to 25. Now, we want you to be potty trained if possible but even at that we can make special concessions if necessary. That's for the children and for the old folks. Now, the please, please come. It's going to be a great time and it's a great investment into our youth. There will be blessed and we will be blessed because we have taught them and trained them and instructed them in the ways of righteousness and holiness. God bless you, thank you very much. Praise the Lord, everybody. My God, the presence of the Lord is in this house this morning. Amen. Amen. When I think about the Lord, amen, I automatically go back to the word, amen. You know in the beginning, you know Adam and Eve messed up and they were separated, amen. But he made a way and he brought Jesus to reconcile us again, amen. When I think about Sarah, she was too old in age for what she thought to receive the promise of the Lord. Amen, God made a way and she was able to bring forth Isaac, amen. Amen, when I think about amen, my life, amen and how there were many situations I thought I wasn't going to be able to get through and God made a way, amen, amen. Worship with us as we sing because God is the God who makes the way, amen. He's the God who loves us. He is the God who cares for us. He indulges us in the silly things, amen. So worship with us as we sing this morning, amen. Hallelujah. Oh, you may Hallelujah. Standing here. Not knowing how we'll get through this test. Hallelujah. But holding on to faith, you know best. Hallelujah. Nothing can catch you by surprise. You have it figured out and you're watching us now. Hallelujah. And when it seems as if we can win You wrap us in your arms and step in. Hallelujah. And everything we need you supply. You've got this in control. And now we know that you made up. Hallelujah. When our back was against the wall And it looked as if it was over. Oh, you, you made up. How am I standing here? Only because you made up. We're looking back on where we've come from. Don't you break us up cause I'll send him. When our back, when our back was against the wall And it seemed as if it was over. Oh, you, cause you moved mountains. You called how we're standing. We're standing here today because he made a way. He made a way. Nobody's thinking that they made it on their own. You know, if we were left to our own devices, we'd been swallowed up long time ago. Long time ago. Scripture said if it hadn't been for the Lord, if it hadn't been that he cared for us, we would have been swallowed up quick. We were born in sin and shaping in iniquity. We didn't have a love for God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. We were born in sin and if it hadn't been for Jesus, who made a way. We were facing a death sentence, eternal death. But thank God, he made a way. He made a way. Hallelujah. It wasn't Elder Ross, it wasn't that he showed us the way or we stumbled up on a way. But he, because of his great love for us, he made a way. He made a way. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I'm excited this morning. I'm excited. God is so good. Hallelujah, hallelujah. The Lord has sent a message to this house on this morning. Elder Ross, I don't know if he had had a sneaky look at my notes, Elder Ross said, there are benefits for walking with God. Benefits. That's exactly what I have on my paper here, Elder Ross. Said, God has benefits for his people. We'll be looking this morning in the book of Second Kings chapter 13. And in chapter 13, we're gonna find out to maneuver through life. How to get the best that God has to offer for his people. We're gonna talk about benefits. Amen, amen. I wonder what keeps people from receiving all God has for them. There are many benefits that's available to us. And let me tell you what benefits looks like. Benefits looks like advantages, profit, results. What I'll declare to you today is that even though there are many benefits that God wants to give to us, it takes cooperation. Amen, amen again. Along with the benefits I left out one other facet of benefits and it's the best one of all. Favor. In Second Kings chapter 13, beginning at verse 14, we'll be looking at Elisha. Not Elijah, but Elisha. Elisha was the, he followed Elisha. And when Elisha was about on his way out, Elisha said to him, I'd just like to have what you got. And he says, not only do I want the favor that you have, he said all the works that you do, I'd like to do that also. But he said, I want a double portion. He said, not just double for your trouble and all of that kind of stuff that we hear. But he said, I want to do the work that you've done. I want to be profitable to the kingdom of God. And I want to be a mighty man with integrity so that I might do what God has called me to do. I feel the call. I'll take you down to verse number 14 where we'll begin to look in this text. And this text speaks of prophecy, the prophecy of Elijah and his death. And what is noted is that Elisha had strong character of iron determination. Iron determination. Now it speaks of a hard metal, iron. And iron doesn't bend, 10 bends. Grass bends, they're soft. But he said, he's described as a man of iron character. He says, that means that he would not bend for anything. There was nothing that could get him to bend. But he lived in a terrible time. So throughout his long life, Elisha had seen corruption and wickedness eat away progressively at the fiber of the northern kingdom. Now as he lay up on his death bed, the nation had deteriorated into a cesspool of sin and false worship, cesspool of sin. And false worship, a cesspool of sin is bad enough. But then when you top it off with idol worship, that's more than too much. Although he had faithfully proclaimed the word of God, warning the people and nation, his message for the most part had fallen up on death ears. But nevertheless, say nevertheless, up until the last days of his life, he continued to best strong witness for the Lord. I'll begin the reading at verse number 14, Second Kings 13 verse 14. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness, whereof he died. Elisha had been sick before. And I don't know anybody that I've ever known that hadn't been sick at some time or another. And let me just throw this in. You know, those of us who are sanctified, sanctified, sanctified, sanctified. I wanna caution us, let's don't be too rough on people who get sick. People declare that if you're sick, you're not doing something right. You know, the Lord wants you well. The Lord would not allow you to be in this condition if you was doing right. Thank you, Elder Ross. Now, Elisha got sick and it points out, this is the sickness that came to take him out. Joash, the king of Israel, came down unto him and wept over his face and said, oh, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. And I'll unfold that for you. Joash, the king, was a kind of right and mostly wrong. But he understood who Elisha was. And it was like he was losing his best friend in the world. He was serious in his crying out, oh, my father, my father, he said, you're the chariot of Israel. What he's saying is, you're the great defense for our whole country. He said, you're a one man army and I don't know what we're gonna do when you close your eyes for the last time. Oh, my father, oh, my father, what are we gonna do is what he was saying. Elisha said unto him, take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bows, bow and arrows. Anybody in here take archery? You've done it before? Come work with me. Now, I'm Elisha. He's Joash. Step up right here. I want you to kind of face this way. Elisha said unto him, take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, put nine hand up on the bow. And he put his hand up on it. And Elisha put his hands up on the hands, on the king's hand. That was a transfer of power. He said, now I put in you what it takes to get the victory in every situation that comes into your life. He said, I've transferred just like was transferred it's me, I've transferred into your hands. Even though you're not a good king. What we found out in this study is he was a some time Christian. He was not one of the ones who were idol worship gods, but he worshiped ideally the true living God. Come on, y'all get that? And he said, open the window eastward. We open the window eastward and he opened it. Then Elisha said, shoot. Elisha said, shoot. And he shot and he said, the arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria, for thou shalt smite the Syrians in AFAC. To thus have consumed them. He says, now that arrow that you shot. Now I hope you held it up. Yeah, that's right. Cause we don't want to go. We want it to go up and take some height. He said, that arrow that you shot, that's the arrow of deliverance. He said, do you understand what you just done? You shot the arrow that's gonna deliver the people of Israel. Now you can hold down for one second. What the influence was of the shot arrow in that culture when you had a beef with somebody and it got to the place where it's, we don't have to fight. We're God's people. You're coming against us. And we've come to the place where we decided we're not taking it cause we God's people. He said, we're going to get a victory over you some kind of way. But the king just didn't know what to do. But Elisha said to him, you shoot that arrow out that window. And he said, it's gonna fall and fall into the earth somewhere. Now it don't matter where it falls. It's in their territory. Come on somebody. I'm gonna tell you right now what you're gonna have to do. You sit down for a minute. What you're gonna have to do is you're gonna have to meet the adversary. Wherever he might happen to be, wherever he comes, you just know that the Lord has sent out an arrow that's gonna land and it's gonna work in your behalf. It's gonna turn whatever is against you. It's gonna turn it around. Yeah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Elisha said that arrow you shot it's the beginning of something new. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Anybody need something, a new beginning? Anybody need somebody to show them how to get a new beginning? How to turn things around? How to make ways where there seem to be no way? Yeah. He leadeth me. He leadeth me by his own hand. He leads me. Elder, come on back. Come on back. He said, now, that arrow that you shot out the window, he said, that's a delivering arrow. Come on. Anybody know that you need some arrows? Come on somebody. The devil's coming out to you and he's coming hard and coming fast and you got to have a defense. You got to know that there's some kind of way that you can stand against the adversary of the soul. You got to know that even though you can't do it by yourself, there's a way that God has made for you. The Lord opened the door of deliverance. He said, that's the arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria. The arrow of deliverance from your problem whoever Syria is in your life. Come on. For thus shall, for thou shall smite the Syrians at Avak. And you know what smite means? Smite means tear them up. Beat them to a pulp. Put them out of condition. Cause them to be nothingness. He said, you're going to beat them down to the ground and into the ground. He said, because you've shot that arrow and that's God's arrow of deliverance. Hallelujah, hallelujah. See sometimes in our life we run up on some stuff and it gets ahold of us in spite of our trying to be main free. And we do our best. And sometimes we don't do our best. We do it intentionally. Y'all know about the high diving board. See you can't fall off of a high diving board. If you go up to a high diving board, that's intentional. When you get up there on that high diving board, you say, oh, I'm going on anyway and just jump on in. But see you need the arrow to have been shot forth. And when you get to that place where you're beyond repair seemingly and you can't help yourself, you try over and over and over again, you've got to have an arrow of God's deliverance. All right, so in verse 18, and he said, take the arrows and he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, smite up on the ground and he smote three times. I know that's what it says. But in the study it says, when it says smite up on the ground, he said, you shoot another arrow. He said, go ahead and shoot the arrows. Why'd you stop? Uh-uh, no, no, why'd you stop? That's the question. That's the question. Elijah said, man, are you crazy? Why did you stop? Didn't you hear me say, these were the arrows of deliverance? Uh-uh, uh-uh, too late. He said, when I say to you that God has made a way, God has given strength. He's given power to overcome the adversary of the soul who is the devil. He said, don't you dare stop. Why would you stop? And there are all kinds of, all kinds of, catch this, not reasons, all kinds of excuses. Hallelujah. See, when the Lord is moving, when the Lord is working in your behalf, come on, you better seize the moment. If God has opened the door, he opened the window to him. If he opens a door to you, the first thing you ought to do is put that foot out inside of that door. You need to charge the enemy. Don't let him get the ups on you because God has given you an arrow of deliverance. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. No, no, go sit down. Go sit down. You wouldn't, you wouldn't shoot. Now, you see, now, the reason I did that to Elder Ross is Elijah did the same thing. The next verse tells you what he did. Verse 19 said, and the man of God was wrought with him. And wrought means intensely angry. He said, after I showed you the way, I told you what God was doing. And you didn't have sense enough to shoot every arrow you had in that quiver. I looked it up. I said, how many arrows can you get in a quiver? They said 25 to 30. Elijah said to him, man, are you kidding me? I just showed you how to get the victory. I'm not gonna be here long. I'm on my way out right now. And you come to me, telling me that I'm a one man army. And yes, I have been, but I'm going. I'm getting out of here. Excuse me, y'all. My watch, wanna know if I'm okay. Wanna know if I've fallen. He said, aren't you kidding me? What is it that you don't understand? When God makes a way, when God who cared so much for each of us individually and collectively, when we see what he went through, when we understand that we were his greatest creation, he said all the things he made were good, but he saw us as a whole different story. We were better than good. And the adversary came against Mother Eve and Father Adam. And they lost their mind. He said, I'm not gonna let the devil take my prized product. They're the best thing I've ever made. Y'all understand? You understand how God feels about you? You got to understand. You got to say something when I say that. You're his greatest creation. That's why he went to Calvary's Cross and shed his blood that we might have a right to the tree of life. And that's some kind of loving. And the man of God got intensely angry with him. Oh, sidebar right here. Minister Sortin's sitting right there. He likes to tell a story of when they almost cut my finger off. I went and got it all stitched up and everything. Had a big old white bandage. It went all the way up to here, from here up to this hand. And the roof was leaking at the church. I was trying to help two fellows put some roofing paper down in the corner. And I said, take it. I cut it the right length and width, big and narrow. And I said, just take it, push it, take it, and put your hand in and just push it down into the corner. And they were like, I said, no, just push it down into the corner. And they kept on and they got worse and worse. I said, give me the thing. And I took it with my white bandage on it and put it in that tarp. And he likes to tell people, he said, yeah, he was mad that day. I think he might have wanted to say intensely angry. Well, what I told him, I said, you ain't seen mad. So now back to the script. Man of God was wrought with him and said, thou should have smitten five or six times at least. Said, if you had done that, you would have smitten Syria till thou had consumed them. Now what does consume mean? Consume means to eat up or to destroy. Totally destroy. He said, you had what it took and you refuse to use it. How come? Somebody said, well, maybe he was just a little bit shy. Time out for a king being shy. Time out for the leader of the country to be shy. Somebody said that there are all kinds of reasons why he didn't strike more than once. And I'm gonna turn to my reasons why he didn't strike more than once. Now this is all just a guess. Said, if he had struck the arrow, he would have had to put forth some effort. So that, you know what? That equals lazy. He'd have had to put forth some effort and he would have to aim. He'd have to try to be accurate. And when you don't want to do what you need to do, that's insanity. Now the suggestion was shooting the arrow required instructions which equals help from the prophet of God and people don't want to hear nothing the preacher got to say. I said, amen. Amen. Amen. When the preacher said, God said, people will get in a hurry and say, well, I don't see it like that. I don't see how come we can't do this and that and the other. Refuse help. Another reason shooting the arrow had to be done through an open window, an opening that's been provided by God. Now don't you make your own window. Don't get that good. But that window has to be provided by God for his glory. Another reason is shooting the arrows had to be done without knowing exactly the outcome ahead. And he says, he said, I shot three times. He said, I didn't think it was doing no good. I didn't see no difference. Another reason that he quit shooting the arrow was ineffective because it was not repeated enough reflecting a lack of confidence in the process. Uh-oh, this church ought to be filled and running over. Well, we shot an arrow one time. We went out and evangelized one time and nothing happened. So I ain't gonna shoot no more. You don't have to go out collectively. You go out every day. You go out every day. You go somewhere every day. And you need to be shooting arrows everywhere you go. Tell them you're lost. You need Jesus on your side. And I know where we can go and we can get you the deliverance that you need. I'll shoot an arrow for you. Thank you, Jesus. Shooting and shooting the arrow had a strategic moment. And when that moment passed, it was gone. Gone. I remember a story that I heard as a very young boy, Bishop Charles Watkins. He was national minister of music for the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. He told a story of a young boy and he loved to hear the orchestra play. And after a performance one day, he said to the director, one of these days, I wanna play in the orchestra. And the director says, how about next week? And he said, he took the big symbols and he said, what I'll do is I'll let you sit in with the orchestra and hold your symbols at the ready. I said, when I point to you, go, the young boy was so excited. When he got there and he joined the orchestra and all the great music around him and everybody was dressed in their tails, outfits and all of that kind of stuff. They were just going to town. And the boy got so excited, he was just looking everything over and everything. And the director pointed to him and he was looking over here. Oh. He missed his moment. Missed the moment, Michael. He missed the moment. He couldn't get that back. He couldn't say, wait, wait, wait, wait, I didn't see it. Back up, let me hit. Opportunity lost, lost. So now he said, then has thou smitten Syria though thou hath consumed it, whereas now thou shalt smite smite Syria three times. Three times. He said, all you were willing to shoot was three arrows. He said, you're going to fight against Syria and you're going to win three times. And all the rest, you're going to get your lunch taken. They're going to beat you down. They don't be continually coming against you because you refuse to take the opportunity to get it right. That's what it's about, Sister Mellon. We've got to finish the job. We can't be half hearted. We can't do it when we feel like it. We can't do it when the sun is just shining. We got to do it in the rain. We got to do it in the snow if that's what comes. Whatever the test brings to us, we've got to do it. We've got to pull an arrow, get one of those 25 out of that quiver, put it out and shoot it. You know, God has called us all with purpose. The Lord didn't call us to be on picnics all the time. He said, have a picnic every night. Have some leisure sometime, but don't be so lazy when it comes to my house. Don't be so disobedient when it comes to my work. All right, now y'all put your seatbelt on for this one. Somebody needs to get an arrow out of that quiver and shoot it so they can get here on time. You know what lateness is? A nasty habit. You know, I talk about what I know. What I know is that you can control it with an arrow. With an arrow. See, an arrow points to a scripture somewhere in the Bible. So everything that you need to get it a hundred percent right is right there in the word of God. And all you got to do is reach back in there and get an arrow and shoot. I worked for the fire department for 30 years. In the 30 years I worked for the fire department. I was never late. You know why? You know why? Because I said, whatever time I got to get up, I'm getting up, because I ain't gonna be late. Now if you fighting with, can't get out of the bed, there are no excuses. No excuses. Like in the story about the man who came to the wedding and they were passing out outfits to wear in the wedding. Free. And the master was walking around and greeting everybody. Oh, you look so nice in your outfit. Oh, good to see you today. What are you in here like this for? Why you got that on? Don't you know that the garments were prepared for you? They had just your size and just your color and all of that. How did you get in? Who let you in looking like that? And the scripture said he was speech less. He couldn't say a word, so you can't lie to God. He knows your thoughts are far off. Ain't this good? Ain't this good? The Lord's getting us ready. My Lord's getting us ready for that great day. Who shall be able to stand in the great day of his coming? Not the tin man. Tin man can't go. He can't stand. He'll get squashed with iron integrity, with determination, with a humble spirit, a spirit of cooperation, and a spirit of togetherness. I'm gonna read this to you and then I'm through. What I propose, the question I ask is about people not receiving all that God has for them and there's one good reason why they don't receive everything he has. Halfhearted obedience yields partly benefits. Part benefit story, this old family story. I probably heard this before, I went to kindergarten. It's about a group of men together working and they had one guy on the team that was shucking and jiving. And he was acting like he was working and while they were working, he was saying the boss think I'm working but I ain't. The boss think I'm working but I ain't. The boss think I'm working but I ain't. And the boss was watching him all the time. The boss think I'm working but I ain't. And the boss said, you think I'm gonna pay you but I ain't. So now, if he had done something, he might've got some kind of benefit. But it says right here, the reason we don't get everything God has for us is because we're half working. We're shucking and jiving and doing whatever we think is right. Don't nobody ever hardly wanna know from me, Bishop, what should I do about so and so? All y'all grown? All y'all grown? Oh, okay. Okay, you don't need no help. You don't need nobody to help you out along the way to guide you a little bit because, see, the heart is deceitful. Come on, somebody. The scripture said your heart will trick you every time. Your heart is deceitful and above all it's desperately wicked and you can't even know your own heart. People say follow your heart. Don't follow your heart, follow your bishop. The Lord's gonna save us. Come on, somebody. He's provided a way for us to make it. We don't have to shuck and jive. That don't pay much. We can give our heart to Jesus. We can say, Lord, I thank you for the way that you made from my escape. I was bound and headed for hell, but I thank you that you made a way. He made a way. He made a way. He made a way. So Lord, because you made a way, I would dare not try to have it my way. Lord, you saved me. Lord, you speak to my heart. Lord, you guide my steps. And he said, I have already. David said, thy word have I hidden in my heart so that I might not sin against God. The Lord wants to help us and he's going to. See, if you don't say amen, I'm thinking you might be saying he ain't going to help me. I ain't going to let him. So we need to say amen when I say that. The Lord's going to help us. Come on, somebody. That's what I said right there. That's the attitude. Lord, I want you to help me. Help me on my journey. Help me on my way. Oh Lord, I want you to help me. The next part of that song is right now, Lord. I want you to help me. Not some other time, some other day, some other place, but right now. Right now, Lord, I need you right now. Israel in the desert. And they came upon those poisoned snakes. The word was to the people, look and live. God told them put a brass thing on the pole and hang it, put it up in front of the people and tell them if they look upon it, they'll make it. They look up on the serpent, they can live. Some people said, I ain't looking at that thing. I know what snakes look like. I don't want nothing to do with that snake. You better look and live. You better look and live. That's the door that's been opened to us. We got to look up to Jesus. We got to follow his word every step of the way. But I thank y'all for listening to me today. I thank you for listening to me. See, because what happened is, see, what was, how you say it, what had happened, yeah. What had happened was the Lord told me to say this. And the reason he told me to say it is because he loves you, he loves you, he loves me. Oh Lord, I want you to help me. Oh Lord, I want you to help me. Lord, I know that you're able and I will humble myself. I was about to quit, but I got to say one more thing. And you ain't gonna shoot no more. You got your three shots and that's it. Now, when you understand what Satan wants to do to all of us is to defeat us. And he wants to make us, hold on, make us think we're the smartest one in the room. If we think that we're the smartest one in the room, what are all of these people? So the devil wants you to have your own opinion. You better check it. You better check it. Yes, do your way. I'll say yes, Lordy. I will trust you to rest you and obey. When the spirit speaks to me with my whole heart, I'll agree. And my answer will be yes. Come on, say it. I'll say yes. Say yes, Lordy, to your will. I'll say yes, hey, I will trust you and obey. When the spirit speaks to me with my whole heart, I'll agree. And my answer, say it again. I'll say yes. When the spirit with my whole heart, and the answer will be, I'll say, brothers, I'll say yes, Lordy, yes, to your will and to your way. I'll say yes, Lordy, yes, I will trust you and the spirit speaks to me. Bishop, I don't say that other song, I just didn't know it. So I don't say that other song, but I just didn't know it. All right. But Bishop talked about the benefits of serving God. The Bible says, bless the Lord all my soul and all that is in me, bless his holy name. It says, bless the Lord all my soul and forget not all of his benefits. See, I worked a job for 30 years and I found out I made a lot of money. But I had some benefits. And when I got sick, I was in the hospital three weeks. They paid more money for me for three weeks and they paid me all year because of the benefits. See, if you're smart, when you're going to a job, you wanna know what the sound, but tell me about my benefits. You see, there are some benefits for serving Jesus. Bishop said, we've got to cooperate. We've got to work with God. So if there's anybody here that you need anything from God, if there's anybody here and you stop shooting your arrows, if there's anybody here that has run out of arrows, I invite you to come down now and the men and women of God are going to pray with you. That God will reignite the fire, the fight that he put in you. See, because the enemy has already been defeated. He says, I've given you all things that pertain to life and to godliness. But like Bishop said, if you stop shooting the arrows, what good is it? You have to go back and reach into your quiver and take out someone else. So I'm inviting you to come down. I understand if I wasn't holding this microphone, I would come down because as I listened to the word, I inventoried my life and inventoried myself. And I realized there's some arrows that you stop shooting. There's some things that God put in your heart that you stop doing, but it's time to reach back into my quiver and aim up in the air and shoot and let the enemy know baby it is on and cracking. So I'm inviting you down. I believe that everybody in this room ought to be coming down to the altar after hearing a word like that. That was a life changing word. See sometimes we are attacked by the enemy. We have sickness in our body. We have problems in our body. We wonder, why is everything seemed to happening to me? But if you stop shooting your arrows, if you stop believing God, if you stop believing the man of God, you are cheating yourself because every benefit belongs to you. Come on down. And while those are coming down, if you have not been born again, if you have not been filled with the spirit of God, if you have not been baptized in the name of Jesus and filled with the Holy Ghost, I'm inviting you to come. Don't put out, put off for tomorrow because tomorrow is not promised to you. Tomorrow is not promised to me. But whatever you need, yes. I need you now, need you now, I need you now. Yes. God is moving. Not another second. Yes. Not another second. He's already made a way. But you've got to step into it. Not another second. Let this be a moment. Yes, yes, yes. I need you now. I need you now. I need you now. Say yes to the spirit of God. The spirit of God is moving. I need you now. Inventory your life and decide, oh, there's some arrows that I should be shooting. And I stop shooting. Not another second. See, because with God, all things are possible. Not another hour. Not another hour. Not another hour. Like Bishop said, he's getting us ready. He's getting us ready for the fight and he's getting us ready for the flight to heaven. We need you, God. We need you. I need you now. Get what you need from God. He's right here to meet your needs. He will not turn you away. Not another second. Not another minute. Not another minute. Not another day. But Lord. Not another day. I need you, Lord. I need you, Lord. Yes. I need you, Lord. I need you, Lord. Right now. I lift my hand and bow my knee. This is a sacred moment. This is a sacred word that's going forth. This is a sacred moment. Lord, I need you, Lord. I need you, Lord. I need you, Lord. Lord, take us higher. I need you, Lord. Lord, put the arrow in our hand and help us to shoot. We need you, Lord. We lift our hands. We lift our hands. We lift our hands. And worship at your throne. Oh, Lord, I need you. I lift my hands. Lift our hands. Bow my knee. And bow our knees. And worship at your throne. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. We have the victory. Come on. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. It's in that name. It's in that name. Tell somebody I've got the victory. OK, this is what we're going to do. I want you to stand on your feet. And if you've got the victory, I want you to pick up your bow and pick up an arrow. I want you to hold it back. In Jesus' name, God bless you. Doesn't the victory feel good? It feels good in here. Victory. Victory. Now it's time to receive our offering. We can't do too much for God. All right, let's raise our offering at this time. I see you're all ready. Father, in the name of Jesus, we come. We thank you for your tender mercy. For your loving kindness. Thank you, O God, that you loved us when we were no good. We were lost, but you found us. Lord, we thank you because you changed our life. You turned our life around. O God, we thank you for all that you've done and for the many benefits that we derive from being your child. So Lord, we should receive our gifts, our offering and our tithes as we bring it into your house. Gratefully, Lord God. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen, amen. Come on with your offering. Amen, amen. It's so good to be in the house this morning, this afternoon. God has been so good to us. I'm glad to see each of you who are here. Thank you, Jesus. Yeah, the little children, amen. They're bringing their offering to the Lord. Amen, we praise God that they're being raised in the fear and admonition of God. And they love the Lord too. Amen. Amen, I'm glad to see all our young people. Amen, look at them. All right, help Rod Deacon. Yes, amen. I'm going to stop y'all in a minute because I've got a song to sing. I'm going to stop y'all in a minute. Go ahead. Done for me. Message and glory to Jesus. I just want to praise you for the things that go. Now, we have a request for a solo. I'll let y'all help me sing the solo. It's Hold to God's Unchanging Hand. Time is filled with swift transition. Can't stand everybody on a hold to his hand. Hold to God's Unchanging Hand. Hold to God's Unchanging Hand. Hold to his hand. God's Unchanging Hand. Tell somebody, hold your trust in him. I just want to say this. God's Unchanging Hand. One second. I had to say this. We're going to sing this some more. We'll sing that other verse. While I was standing here, I looked back and I saw Brother Brock. And Brother Brock got his shout in this morning. Brother Brock got his shout in. And I just went, wow. Because when his mother was about his age, one Sunday night, she got her shout in. And I say, look at Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hold to God's Unchanging Hand. Trust in him. Trust in him. Will not leave you. Will never leave you. Whas so ever? Close it to him. God's Unchanging. God's Unchanging. And so, Father, we acknowledge that we need you. You've given us all things that pertain to life and the godliness, but we still need you. We need to hold to your hand. Because you do not change. You're the same yesterday, today, and forever. So, Lord, we ask that you would go with us. Strengthen us. Encourage us. help us to be fully ready to fire an arrow against the enemy whenever we need to in Jesus' name. And you will give us the victory and we will give you the praise. We won't touch the glory. The glory belongs to you. You said, don't touch the glory. Don't touch the fact it belongs to you. But we fully expect for you to do it sitting and abundantly above all that we can think or ask because these are the benefits that you've given to us. Go with us. Bring us back to the point of time. We will bless you and we will praise you not only when we get here but we'll bless you along the way all day long every day. We'll have a hallelujah in our hearts, a hallelujah in our lips, and a victory shall appraise in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. God bless you. See you next week.