Apostle Herman Murray | Demas

[Music] me [Music] it is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] [Music] so much [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] thank you jesus [Music] oh come on somebody lift those hands at your voices hallelujah [Applause] all that said come on if you know you got joy like a river ever blow it come on oh let me hear you say it [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] give me hallelujah put your hands together come on that everybody tell the lord [Music] the goodness of jesus [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you give me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] me [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh somebody give him praise hallelujah [Music] oh lift your hands just love him just love him for a moment you give me joy [Music] oh yes you do searched the world over couldn't find nobody nobody know nobody [Music] ain't nobody nobody nobody nobody nobody can do me like you can you give me joy you give me joy you give me joy [Music] and the joy of the lord [Music] is my strength you give me joy every time i wake up there's a new mercy you give me choice oh unspeakable and overflowing you give me joy you give me joy you give me joy give me joy give me joy give me joy you give me joy somebody lift your hands up just just right where you're standing i love what i'm feeling [Music] [Music] oh that's it come on just say something wonderful from your heart through your lips all the way up to god's ears you give me joy oh yes you know oh man oh my [Music] oh my god [Music] you give me choice [Music] in his presence [Music] in his presence anybody glad to be in his presence [Music] couldn't hardly wait to get in your presence there's fullness of joy [Music] oh my lift those hands and praise him everybody [Music] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah [Music] thank god oh i feel him in the room anybody fill him in the room and i like what i feel just lift your hands up and tell him thank you tell them i needed that i needed that hallelujah [Music] [Music] whoa yes yes lord he's so great and so greatly to be praised i'm glad to be here tonight glad to be where the saints are in the house of the lord i'm glad god loaned you to life another day and listen we heard some great testimonies tonight come on put those hands together amen thank god amen for young men good to see young men testify amen to the goodness and to the grace of the lord amen certainly we enjoy they've been all of those testimonies tonight let's give sister shamira amen a great big round of applause certainly we've enjoyed let the redeemed of the lord say so tonight amen maybe it wasn't your time to testify it wasn't your time amen to speak but god's been good to you and he's been good to your neighbors your brothers and your sisters why don't you take a moment and thank god for being so good to them go shake somebody's hand hooks about it and tell him you love him with the love of the lord he's a great god [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] come on and clap your hands with me everybody [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] come on and clap your hands everybody [Music] [Music] come on come on [Music] [Applause] [Music] tell somebody come on put those hands together give him some praise in the room everybody oh i said give him some praise come on hallelujah on your way to your seat tell somebody i love you and i'm praying for you i love you and i am praying for you amen i was in the office a minute ago amen and i just i wanted to know if you really believe that y'all believe that because i love you i do and i'm praying for you i don't just a man i don't want to say that to the point that it becomes cliche-ish i want you to know that amen i love you i try to show you amen i try to express that to you and i don't know if if if if in every church people honestly believe that their pastor loves them but i want you to know your pastor loves you amen you i love you amen and you and you and you and you and yeah you too and y'all back there oh yeah amen i love you and i am praying for you amen that's my goal my goal is to make sure amen that i do everything that i can do to fulfill the mandate that god has placed on me to cover you because when i get to heaven and i stand before our great god i've got to give an account amen for all of these that god have entrusted into my hands amen unto the word that i preach and so i take that quite seriously amen amen and i tell you it is the greatest honor of my life to pass to this church amen and to to lead amen for gospel holy temple and just preach the word of god amen i just love to preach the word of the lord we thank god for all of our guests and our friends that are here with us tonight and i thank god for all of you well it's preaching time look at somebody and tell them neighbor there is a word from the lord oh and tell somebody and i am a lover of the word of our god i love mine and i brought mine with me you got yours come on hold that power up tonight thank god because everything else is going down but what everything but the word of our our god amen i want you to follow me tonight y'all gonna give me some time to preach amen amen i didn't rush nothing else so don't y'all rush me amen i wanna i wanna uh take some time tonight to preach to you out of the pages of the word of god uh i know i just told you i love you but do you really believe i want you to go to heaven you believe that i told you some of you i'm gonna get you there hey man if i gotta drag you up to the threshold and drop kick you across amen you going to heaven amen i'm telling you i'm not going i'm not going to lighten up on you just because you feel like a man he shouldn't hurt my feelings well i don't have to be your friend on this side we can be friends on the other one but as long as we're over here amen my job is to give you what you need to get to heaven amen and i sin and and i i i think so many times about what does that really mean for me and i can't make you do anything amen i can't i just can't i can't make you come to church i can't make you love the lord amen the only thing that i can do is preach to you amen and live the life before you that god requires me to do amen i talk to you and i believe that you are convinced that this is the word of god boy the church ain't saying nothing amen well let me ask you are you convinced that this is the word of god do you believe it's incorruptible you believe it's infallible do you believe that it's unadulterated amen this is the word of god and if you believe truly that this is the word of god amen but nobody that wants to go to heaven is going to fight this amen if if you got a problem with the word you just don't want to go to heaven because amen it's his heaven and you know he reserves the right to tell us what it takes to get there don't nobody just come to your house unannounced amen if you tell them to come at three and they show up at nine in the morning no you get what you get when you come amen i tell them don't come hey man if i didn't tell you to come don't just show up at my house i don't care if you look through the window and you see me sitting on the couch and i see you looking at me you ain't getting in we'll wave at each other and i'm not getting up to open the door you see me yeah i do yeah what that means amen you don't just choose when you come in and heaven belongs to the lord amen and he reserves the right to tell us what we got to do to get there and if you really want to get there you don't fight the word of the lord amen and if you know that i'm preaching to you out of the pages of the word of god apostle murray always told us you keep the word between you and the people amen if they gonna fight anything let them have to come through the word to get to you amen if you're going to fight amen you got to fight this because it's the only thing i'm giving you the word of the lord and the bible amen is full of the instruction it is the instruction amen that god has given to his people in order for us amen to make it all the way from earth to glory i want to talk to you tonight amen about the things that he requires of us in order for us to make it amen uh the bible is full of examples of people who didn't make it and those people are our examples do you know god can use people as a negative example like he did pharaoh amen he shows us in that he used pharaoh as an example of how not to handle the true and the living god amen he uses people even those people that that that were not used amen because they were vessels of honor did you know that god can use people as vessels of dishonor amen yeah god you see people sometimes and it's not a it's not something to to gloat about it's not something to brag about but there are people even in our modern day times that god have used as negative examples and we saw the hardness of their hearts we saw the waywardness amen the way that they shined the good and ran toward the evil and we've seen people get cut down we've seen the judgment of god fall on people and that's not something for us to brag about or gloat in or glory in that somebody got cut down but that's an example to the rest of us to be faithful and diligent amen in our service to the lord and so the bible is full of examples both positive and negative examples amen and we've got to search the scripture so that we know for sure that we're standing amen on solid ground i want you to get me a man uh philemon why y'all laughing y'all need a bible drill real quick to find it amen come on come on now first and second timothy titus did i pronounce it differently philemon amen come on y'all then y'all done throwed me off i was serious and trying to get through this philemon philemon or however they pronounced it in the school district that you were educated in just get there so i can come on and tell you what the lord amen would have me to tell you amen the 23rd verse amen and the 24th why is there pages turning are y'all there when you have it say amen all right the 23rd and the 24th verses read their salute the erapharis epaphras epapparus my fellow prisoners my fellow prisoner in christ jesus uh-huh marcus marcos who was mark john mark uh-huh aristicus uh-huh demus dimas lucas lucas my fellow laborers my fellow laborers there salute the epaphras my fellow prisoner in christ jesus marcus aristarchus uh demus lucas my fellow laborers marcus aristarkas demus lucas my fellow laborers get me colossians 4 and 14. three colossians 4 and 14 luke the beloved physician and demus and demons greet you greet you luke the beloved physician and demons greet you we went from marcus aristarchus demas lucas my fellow laborers to now luke the beloved physician and demons get me ii timothy 4 and 10. now just stay with me we'll will get there second timothy 4 and 10 for demas had forsaken me pemas has forsaken me having loved this present world having loved this present world and is departed unto thessaloni that's the laconica that's the lanai that was close enough they know where he went amen that's what i like yeah notice the progression of scripture in philemon or philemon we see demas is declared to be my fellow laborer we move from philharmonic philemon to colossians where he loses all uh elements of respect if you would and and and if you notice paul is paul is very descriptive of the people around him you notice that whenever he talks about people he loves to compliment people and talk about their good sides and he loves to to speak of what they add to him he's he he's he's very forthcoming with his compliments quite complimentary uh in his in his words uh to describe people and at the front at the first he says of demas and every stark us and marcus and lucas these are my fellow laborers but then we see him in colossians it seems like something starts uh missing and and he just simply says mark a great physician beloved and demons and finally in second timothy 4 10 we we see him say demons forsake me he's gone he's a casualty of the battle what happened from from from my fellow laborer to endemus he's just just an asterisk just endemus and finally we see that demas has forsaken us because he loved the world started out worthy of accolades my fellow laborer he's in here working hard with us then luke the beloved physician and demons and finally he's gone i couldn't figure out nothing to label this message tonight that's not even at the top of my page i just i just want to talk about demas tonight pasadena's always saying my name has is d-e-m-u-s don't get me mixed up with that one [Music] luke 21 and 34. you didn't close your bibles that quick did you come come with me let's walk for a moment luke 21 and and 34 luke 21 and 34 and take heed to yourselves the bible says we must take heed to ourselves and that's an instruction to every one of us take heed to yourself worry about you look at somebody tell them just worry about you that there's enough that we've got to guard against that we don't have time to be the police uh a full gospel holy temple you know you got some folk want to look around amen and they'll look and see everybody in the church that ain't doing nothing right and i don't know why uh the past they jumped down they throat yeah oh he ought to come on them amen when both of his feet just put his feet in their chest and oh he ought to get them pat him down hello listen the bible said just take heed unto yourselves amen don't worry about people you've got to make sure that you are where god called you to be take heed to yourselves three lest at any time lest at any time your hearts be overcharged uh-huh with sufficiency and drunkenness and drunkenness and cares of this life the cares of this life brothers sisters sons and daughters we've got to be on guard to make sure that we don't get tangled up and tied up with the cares of this life and you've got a lot of people amen they're saved they're filled with the holy ghost but if they're not on guard they will find themselves once again entangled and tied up with the cares of this life there's so much going on now in this world that if we're not careful as the children of god we will fool around and find ourselves amen back in a place where we were drunk off the chaos of this life you got a lot of folk amen they're looking at what all they need what all they can have amen in this life they they want more of this they're out to get that and you see that this stuff becomes foremost uh in their affection they just they desire to be better amen than everybody else they desire to have more than everybody else life becomes a competition with the people around them now they got to keep up and that means they got to work so hard amen to try to keep up a lifestyle that they really can't afford no way but that stuff becomes their aim it becomes their goal it becomes their motive it becomes how they come to define themselves and what you fear is that their service to the lord starts to wane just so caught up with the cares and the affairs of this life amen that their service to god is the first thing that begins to suffer and i told you it's always god now that has to come up holding the short end of the stick we'll give all of our best to everything else we'll give our best to ourselves but then when it comes to god we want god to just accept whatever we got left after we have given the world and ourselves and the people around us the best of us now god gets the dregs because we're caught up with the cares of this life listen uh the bible tells us our goal should be to seek first the kingdom and all of his writing and what he said and the rest will be added unto you you are a child of god and do you realize that as a child of god god's going to take care of you you don't have to worry about that stuff amen that don't have to be what you seek after you don't have to seek out the money seek out seek after the kingdom and watch god take care of the rest he said these are the things that people seek out there who really don't know me they don't have a relationship with me but if you know me then just want the more of me and when you're walking on me seek the kingdom and i will give you everything that else the reason why some of us haven't gotten the step we've been working so hard for is because we've been seeking that instead of looking god could have gave it to you a long time ago all of the stuff that you're trying to get on your own god can give that to you no problem amen but what we're doing now we're seeking back and it's coming at the expense of our service to god and so he says you've got to watch it unless the cares of this world take you over and your hearts be overcharged with trucking except me first corinthians 10 and 12. first corinthians 10 and 12. wherefore let him wherefore let him and her that thinketh he's standing there thinking that he stand it take heed take he lest he fall lest he fall this tells us that we don't have space for carelessness and how many people today are so bound and caught up with a spirit of carelessness i'm telling you when they tell you you can make more money working overtime and oh if you just do this you can you're coming up for promotion and you've got people and there's nothing wrong with with looking for a promotion let me say that there's nothing wrong amen with the salary to grow and go higher in your career but the problem comes when you're willing to sacrifice the things of god amen for everything else that you desire in your life you've got to be careful because carelessness will end in your downfall he said you've got to be careful let him that standard be well amen let him that standard amen i think that he said that take heed beware lest he fall and listen there's always an enemy trying to take advantage of you you've got to know that this life amen it's not a cakewalk it's not something to take lightly like so many people are taken lightly today you've got a lot of folk amen they think sunday morning is all that god requires i'll just come sunday morning and as long as i'm there sunday morning i got enough to last me the rest of the week and it's not that they can't come to church peter we would have a desire anymore because god got enough of my time sunday [Music] and it's this kind of carelessness that's going to cause a lot of people to slide and the slide sometimes it's so delicate and so slow but they don't even realize that the enemy is is what i preached the other day it is drawing them away it's not amen that he's snatching them out he's just trolling them away and that's what's happening in their carelessness they are allowing the devil amen to draw their hearts away from the things of god and so he says you've got to be very careful amen even if you think you're standing watch out lest you fall does this sound like we have space amen to be careless and unconcerned like so many people are right now how many people are we dealing with in today's church world amen who didn't realize how far they were moving away from the things of god they were just careless stop reading their bibles they stopped praying stop coming to church didn't see the need to pass amen but when they came they felt like because i had such a good time while i was there that's all that i need in order to survive this fight but the devil is a liar listen every day that you wake up there is an enemy that's trying to destroy you he's trying to turn you around he's trying to uproot y'all gonna get quiet on me he met on tuesday he's trying to uproot you from the solid foundation of the word of god and if you're not careful while you're shouting your heart will still be moving further and further and father away from god touch somebody internally but be careful because there's a devil loose god he's loose and he's trying hard amen to turn people's hearts back from god and that's why peter warns us in first peter five and eight peter says what you've got to do you've got to be sober are y'all hearing what i'm telling you all y'all listening to me he said you've got to be sober you've got to be petulant you've got to be persistent amen in god in your heart because there is an adversary who is still out walking as a roaring lion seeking whom he made the power he don't care nothing about you singing he don't care nothing about your preaching he's looking to turn you around and you can look at yourself now and think all along when i testified and told the church up when i saw him the whole place just went to pieces when i preached the anointing feel so heavy but you've got to be careful and you've got to be aware because just because god's head was on you and he used you yesterday to me you can afford to be careless today how many people were shouting suddenly tuesday they're not even in the kingdom anymore all right you got to watch it because the enemy is really trying his best to keep you from crossing that threshold he's trying to keep you from living the victorious life that god has called for you to live he knows that when your mind is made up he knows that when your heart is fixed he knows that when you're focused no matter what god is calling you to do there's nothing that he can do to stop you he can't deter you he can't turn you around but if you saw god if you're not sober peter says i want you to be sober which means not impaired i want you to be in your right mind and listen it's more than being drunk of a wine and thunderbird and hennessy hey man you can be trump of the affairs of this life is that what luke told us a minute ago he said you gotta watch it that's a drunkenness and cares of this life come in and take your heart over you've got to be careful sons and daughters because you can be drunk out of popularity you can be drunk off of pain y'all get quiet you can be drunk off of money you can be dropped from prestige you've got to watch this stuff because once it takes you over you're no longer sober you're trump you're intoxicated you are impaired and you got a lot of folks trying to walk or with the lord and don't realize they're repaired but y'all hearing what i'm trying that's why you keep stumbling because you are drunk that's the reason why you can't walk the street of nara because you're trump of the cares of this life but somebody tonight has to heed the warning that peter gives us he said you've got to be sober some of us are slaves and we have sold ourselves for likes and attention just trump and don't even realize that there's a pebble that's waiting to take advantage of your intoxicated state he's looking to snatch you out of the dog and cry here but you know what amen you don't have to go that way that's why peter tells us that the success of our christian world is in japanese only to the degree that we cannot maintain our sobriety you in danger if you can't maintain your sobriety look at this world and this world is it can be quite intoxicating amen y'all getting quiet amen you can be drunk over so many things and so many people don't fully appreciate peter's warning i guess they're caught up in in the rhetoric amen they're caught up in his powerful imagery look at what he said he walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he made and we picture a lion amen in the forest we picture animal intentions amen but what peter is trying to stress here amen it's not the beauty of a life or the strength of life he's trying to stress the fact that this is a deadly encounter you don't understand if you're not sober you don't want to have that kind of encounter amen with a lion that's out to destroy you and to devour you and there's so many people we can preach about this all day and there's still so many people that just won't get it they just won't seem amen to get the picture and what he's trying to tell us is that this word that i'm giving you should move us to be on our guard you got to watch yourself hey man you've got to make sure that the service that you're giving to the lord amen is what god requires you've got to make sure that this thing is in your heart i know y'all want me to tune up tonight but that's all you get amen god wants us to be sober he wants us to be clear-headed he wants us now amen to be watchful of our souls listen i didn't get saved to come over here and backslide i didn't give god my life and just to turn around and lose my soul the devil is alive i'm not giving the devil my testimony i'm not giving myself amen any excuses i'm not wasting all these years of my life i've been saved too long to let the devil come in now and treat me and steal my testimony and i couldn't tell somebody he man i don't care if you've been saying bad things five years or five decades you've got to maintain your integrity in the lord come on now you shouldn't come over here to stay until you die [Applause] a whole lot of folks are no longer on guard you know boxers boxers in the ring are always told always protect yourself that that's the first rule always protect yourself as long as you're in this ring it's a fight y'all getting caught as long as you're standing up here and there's time on that clock don't turn around and talk to the referee because there's still a fight going on and if he hits you and you go down it's nobody's fault but yours because you're always to protect yourself and this is the fight that we're in you got to guard your heart to make sure that heaven don't plant no seeds in your heart you always say nothing you got to guard your mind to make sure that he don't have you thinking crazy why are you sitting up in oh y'all don't got quiet here do you know there's a whole lot of people amen sitting up in church looking sanctified looking good and in their mind the devil is fighting them with the preacher he's fighting always saying nothing here and the preacher ain't saying nothing to him but he's fighting them in their mind he's fighting with the pastor's wife he's fighting with the other saints with the auxiliary leaders you've got folk now that nobody's even thinking about but there's a why going on in their mind you've got to go at your mind for the devil to have you in church thinking crazy come on now i keep telling you that's a dirty rascal oh you think hey man the devil obeys rules the devil don't play fair hey man he don't obey rules or y'all hearing what i'm trying to tell you he'll use his feet he'll use it are the devil will do whatever he can do in order to take you out in order to pull you down but that's why god gave you the ability to fight he didn't leave you without any help he didn't leave you without a plan for success you fight the good fight of faith and sit in church and tell yourself that before i let the devil help me sitting up in here thinking crazy i'll go down and get prayer before i have him running me all over the city trying to run from somebody that's not even thinking about me i'll go and get that straight you always standing here you've got to learn how to take the power away from the devil before you leave your church because the devil's convinced you somebody don't like you go to him or you always say y'all don't want that kind of deliverance yet huh go to him and tell him the devil's fighting me but you're my brother and you're my sister and before we let the devil win come on let's tag team let's pray about this let's see god about it so that both of us can win [Applause] [Music] well the devil is alive touch somebody until we get some victory tonight oh yes we are we're going to get some victory i'm not letting it ever trick me out of church i'm not letting him trick me out of the safety zone if i got to get something right i'm going to get it right but it ain't going to always stand up in here but tap somebody tell a neighbor in the end i'm going to win oh no i'm i'm guarding myself i'm going to protect myself at all times because i don't want to start out good like so many people and then fall to in the end i don't want folk to brag about what all or he did this you know and she did this and then i remember when she was anointed i remember when things were different from oh no no no see the devil is trying to fight your consistency he wants you to live a different light now than the one you testified about 30 years ago when you gave god your life and you know it's so sad now hey man sometimes we're driving and we're talking or we're out of town or we're just around the house and we talk amen about well that's when i remember when this one did this and this one used to sing and that one used to preach and your mind says but where are they now my fellow laborers and they have forsaken us you got to make sure sons and daughters that over time you don't start to drift you got to make sure get me aim of seven and seven i'll be through when i get through it amos seven and seven amos seven and seven through nine read thus he showed me uh-huh and behold and behold the lord stood upon a wall the lord stood up on the wall made by a plumb line made by a plumb line with a plumb line with a plumb line in his hand and the lord said unto me wait a minute he stood on a wall made by a plumb line and he held a plumb line in his hand whatever it was that's responsible for making you what you are or what you were is the same that god's going to measure you by the day amen or no he didn't go and get something else to measure this wall it was made by a plumb line and a plumb line was getting ready to tell the story and that's what you got to realize listen if it was holiness that brought you to where you are now god's not going to get something less of standard to judge you by he wants to know are you still holding to the standard that's responsible for who you are today or have you have you drifted the plumb line was a what was a tool that measured the uprightness of a structure what a plumb line would do it would tell you if the walls were right it would tell you if they were at a 90 degree angle amen in the plumb line was something that you set up against the wall and if it measured the same at the top where the string was and against the pendulum and the plumb line at the bottom then you know that wall was straight y'all getting quiet here and so he said i saw him standing next to his wall made by a plumb line with the plumb line in his hand are y'all hearing me and he said what read and the lord said unto me the lord said amos amos what see is that what do you see and i said and i said a plumb line a plumb line then said the lord wait a minute then the lord said what behold but how i will set a plumb line ah in the midst of my people wait a minute wait a minute god said i'm gonna measure you i need to know where you are today y'all getting quiet don't tell me about five years ago when i got saved where are you today are y'all hearing what i'm trying to tell you you got some whole uh churches whole denominations still bragging about what happened a long time ago try we would and we were where are you today come on now he said i'm going to set a plum line in the midst of my people don't tell me how holy you were back to chapter 10 we couldn't read nothing back then we couldn't do nothing back then we had to do this back then they wouldn't let us go nowhere but what i'm trying to figure out haven't you seen yet that back then you were casting out devils back then you had power and now yeah you may dress like everything and you can go everywhere but where's the power that we saw that y'all get quiet here i'm trying to tell you you will never have more power with god than you have sanctification if you ain't sanctified there are y'all getting quiet again you can't have real power with god until you've been set apart so that he can use and make you exclusively his i said i'm i'm going to measure you i got to make sure you're still up right i got to i got to make sure you still walking right cause if you're not careful over time you'll start to lean i'll make it and some y'all getting quiet here and sometimes it was so slow and so subtle until you don't even know which way is up you think you're as straight as you can be and don't even realize you're cricket or y'all hearing what i'm trying to tell you and there's a whole lot of crooked people that's gotten so used to being crooked until qriket is straight for them you got some people that have come to be so chaotic that chaotic is their order chaotic is their norm but god said no i've got to measure you i want to know where you are today you got to make sure that the devil don't start to throw your heart away just because your feet are still in church don't mean that your heart hasn't drifted away from god [Applause] he said i'm going to measure you i'm going to make sure that you still love me like you used to i got to show the condition of your heart today i i don't want to know how you felt about me 20 years ago i want to know do you still love me i want to oh god y'all ain't nobody saying that i'm trying to find amen somebody that loved the word god said i want to know where are you today look at somebody and ask them where are you oh god i don't mean where you're sitting i mean how are you positioned in your relationship with i feel like i need to talk to somebody i want to know what is your position and your relationship with god oh i get it you're still here but are you only still here because you had the auxiliary are you only still here because you got position and title and because the pastor decided to use you a couple of times is that the reason why you're here because i come to tell you that when god starts searching he starts with your heart he's not looking at what you do he's looking at what's behind it he wants to know that you still love him he wants to know that your motives are still pure in his sight [Applause] amos what do you see amos said lord you're doing it you made the wall with a plumb line and you're using that same measurement to measure us today oh you're looking if over time a passion got weak looking to see if over time we got colder in our spirit and just because we've been here a long time we take that to mean we're still on fire how y'all ain't saying that i ain't going nowhere you haven't gone nowhere but you ain't doing what you used to do lord y'all go y'all gonna make me preach tonight you ain't doing what you used to do you used to tell everybody are you always saying nothing you'd find wise ways to drop hints on the job because you wanted everybody to know that you loved the lord you would talk to people and you know that's what the church used to do we used to talk to folks everywhere and when we wanted to testify if they didn't call us up to test the path the church used to go knocking on folk doors opening up the can i talk to you about what the lord did for me but over time we stopped talking god said why why why you still what you used to be we brothers and sisters we've got to make sure that we remain solid that we remain stable and that we remain upright are y'all listening we've got to make sure that we're solid and stable and that we remain upright the bible is full of examples of people who started out good but who over died lost out in the end greatest example of which is the son of perdition you know him the one of whom it was said it would have been better for him that he had never been born look at judas judas was a sad case i i i tell you all the time he chose 12 he sent disciples two by two the bible said he called them that they would come and be with him then he gave them power over unclean spirits judas was in that number judas didn't start out bad because jesus would have never called him if he was there was no potential in him started out with great promise something inside of him that the master could use we find that over time his love for the lord did not remain the same judas over time started to slip back into those devious ways the bible even tells us by revelation in the book of john and judas was a thief and he helped himself to the money that was coming out of the bag he was the treasurer stealing money ain't that sad you got to watch you better watch some of these foe everybody in church can't deal with money well y'all now y'all getting quiet uh you watch them and the bible said judas judas tells him he said listen he's so common you wouldn't know him just to look at him because he's not walking around with wings on his back he's not floating through the air you wouldn't know him he's he's like everybody else so to make sure that you get the right one when i when i go up to him and i kiss him on the jaw then you know that that's him otherwise you probably wouldn't know who he is and the bible said judas kissed him and i tell you all the time judas kissed the door of heaven ain't that what jesus said i am the door and if and if you come in you've got to come by me the door of heaven and judas walked right up to the door he got so close his lips touched him but then turned right around and died and went to hell it doesn't matter how close you are what matters to me here is that you do enough to make it all the way from right to glory look at jonas walked with jesus saw him raised the dead saw the miracles saw him welcomed water and still lost out in the end it doesn't matter how you start some of us are still bragging about how we started years ago that is irrelevant if you are not still abiding isn't that what the lord said if you abide in me you always say nothing no he said you got to stay connected doesn't matter you testify when i got saved that night oh man i went out and this happened and then and i'm telling i never felt the rush i never felt power like i felt it and and we talked about all that where are you five years later that's what we know if we follow on to know the lord judas lost he was the most famous but he was not the only example here is a man that we have very little information about we know his name is demas according to the word of god he was a co-laborer and somebody that paul was proud to have in the service of the lord some people start out with so much promise and so much potential you see them and they come in running they coming i mean when they first get saved they bringing people to church every service and you just know man they're going to be something great in god have you ever just sat back and watched that it wasn't that you were trying to give people a calling you just looked at them and said man if they keep this up they are going to be something in the kingdom i mean they're going to bring many souls in god's going to use them in a great and a mighty way and that's just what we what we surmise when we when we look at what was going on and this brings me to a point sometimes we are impressed but our being impressed is deceptive at best sometimes we we're looking at the outward expression we're looking at the at the show that we see we're we're looking at physical acts and actions and don't even realize some people aren't doing this because they really love him they're doing it because they know you watching some people don't have it in their heart they man they always here hey one of the first ones here you know why because they heard somebody brag on them for being the first one there and they just like being bragged on so they keep showing up it's not that they want to come they just love the fact that you noticed oh man that's just over there well i tell you every time we come to church she's doing this every time that brother come to church he got somebody with him and they love those accolades so they keep doing it not because they want to see a soul save they want you to see them bring somebody else so you'll walk up to them before services always say man you did it again but god searches the hearts and the reins he knows the conditions of our hearts he knows why you did what you did you may fool some people but you'll never fool god and it's going to prove out in the end famous my fellow laborer in the gospel look at him paul is free with accolades and compliments if you're doing it he don't have a problem saying this is a great man he's doing a great work this one is of note among the apostles and this one is this and this one is that and look at mark he's profitable now look at the oh lord look at it paul does not mind giving compliments well that do he gives honor to whom honor is due and when he talks about uh lucas and every stalkers uh and and and and demons he said these are my fellow laborers in the gospel they're shouldering this load they're doing the work of the kingdom and i don't mind telling you look at them tell them i said oh they're doing a great job came us right in there with him he was obviously the one engaged in the work of the kingdom and to many his work may have seemed to be impressive but even those who work for the lord must guard their hearts so as not to see themselves lose out in the end get me hebrews 3 and 12 and 13. hebrews 3 and 12 3 take heed take he there it is again brethren luke 21 34 says take heed to yourselves first corinthians 10 and 12 says let him that thinketh that he standeth take heed take heed seems to be the thing tonight now hebrews 3 and 12 says what take heed take heat pay attention somebody needs to sober up you need to see what's going on look at the condition of your spirit because if you don't check yourself you'll look up and find yourself outside of the will of god and everybody else instead of you testifying to them they'll be testifying about you the way paul testified about demons look at what he says hebrews 3 12 read take heed brethren take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart brethren watch it or else there may be found in some of you if you're not watchful an evil heart read in departing from the living god leads you away from god you know what this is telling us it's telling us that nobody just walks out overnight this stuff started in your heart before it hit your feet boy y'all getting quiet enough you thought backsliding started in the feet when they walked out of the church backsliding don't start in your feet it starts in your heart you gotta guard your heart you can sit up and check and the enemy is trying to steal your heart preach it let go conduct it and your heart is gone sing it over the auxiliary you're still there but your heart is gone i'll never forget years ago a woman stood up on sunday night the microphone in her hand she turned and looked at apostles some of y'all were there turning and looked at apostle and sister mary and said i love you i want you to know i'm with you i thank god for bringing me here and i said i pray for you and i'm not with you i want you to know i'm with you and tuesday apostle mary got up because she was over in auxiliary a major accident he said sister so-and-so is no longer with us and i'm saying what she just got up and made this big declaration to the whole church i'm with you i want you to know i know god sent me here and i don't seem too much to be fooled by the hat sometimes they almost scare you when people go to talk like that my god no another one bites the dust but she was just at church the weekend her body was there for the heart it was already gone hey you've got to watch it you've got some people they're in relationships they're married they still in the same house but their heart is gone their roommates just trying to stay together for the sake of the children their heart is gone when one of the ones jesus gave the book of revelations i see all this other stuff that you got going on he said but the truth is you left your first love your heart ain't here no more mama my mama you didn't you didn't leave the church you just you left your first love and you got some folk if you don't hurry up and do something now the fact that your heart is gone is gonna tell off after a while oh don't stay just because you're over in auxiliary be man or woman enough to have the conversation with me ain't gonna try to hold you here boy y'all getting quiet now ain't even trying to sneak around well i'm gonna stay because all these folk depending on let me tell you something if your heart gone that means it's not here for you to put your heart into what you're doing my god now i didn't lost somebody my god a few of you should have jumped up and ran up here and said isn't i my lord is it i my lord so i can hurry up and tell you thou art the one what you do do it quickly [Music] if your heart ain't here that means you don't have enough of it to put it into what you're doing amen thank you god god is searching our our hearts read what he says but exhort one another daily but encourage each other every day while it is called today wow that is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin you to encourage each other we got to encourage each other look at somebody close to you and tell them neighbor no saint left behind oh no no no no we ain't leaving those saints behind i i got to watch you i got to be careful to always be there for you if i see you faltering i'm coming y'all ain't saying i'm telling you now just get offended he just keep coming up i'm coming i'm telling you now i'll be right there because i gotta encourage you or else somebody is going to fall for the safeness of sin and sometimes when people's heart and their mind is way what you got to bring them back to the right place but y'all hearing what i'm trying to tell you sometimes you got to help to bring them back to reality and tell them hey they say don't worry did they go right you tried this before you know this ain't nobody but the devil look at you always saying nothing here you know what we do we like to validate folks and they telling us stuff that they're doing wrong and we said okay i'm so happy i ain't happy for you you know he ain't saved what are you thinking what y'all hearing what i'm trying to tell you we've got to come to an idea where we can encourage each other to stay faithful to god my god not sitting there liking that mess you put on facebook and you know it's wrong to put up y'all getting quiet here child out and feeling love and you've been married 18 times the devil is alive don't invite me to you but y'all ain't saying nothing here i'm not buying you no kim you always stand up in here i'm the one that's supposed to encourage you to die [Applause] preach it exalt each other preach apostle preach it lest we sit by and watch people fall prey to the deceitfulness of sin there's people what if nobody says anything they're going to be deceived sin looks so fun it looks so attainable jesus and the devil is just playing you like the amen like the beast with the carrot dangling in front of him all right got you moving following that character don't you realize it'll always be just beyond your reach sin is deceiving like that and sometimes we got to exhort each other to be our better selves come on now don't don't don't fall for that again come on you know better than that come on now uh you know we don't do that in holiness and as you know i'm not her mama and i just don't want her to act like i'm always trying to boss around that's right listen if that's a friend a friend ought to be able to tell you the truth about you y'all ain't saying nothing you come at the house y'all and didn't know when you untucked your skirt all the way up in your waist and you got a friend there and they just gonna let you walk out the house like nah a friend gonna pull you back hey come on back in here you about to embarrass yourself look at y'all when he's saying that a friend is gonna tell y'all getting quiet now a friend ain't gonna let you do stuff hey man that's not going to be in your best interest a friend love it that all y'all getting quiet here a friend is gonna be there stop acting like you ain't got no friends with all of these folk in here i ought to be able to look at you and say that ain't nothing but a trick it's a trap of the devil and if you really love god you ain't going to get mad at me for telling you what god would have you to know and judge one another every day so we see demons as a fellow laborer but brothers and sisters as a hasten after a while church work will never be enough your heart has to be pure it's got to be dedicated to god the next time we hear about demons paul is uncharacteristically dry he talks about luke the love physician and demons he says nothing he's still there he's just not doing nothing worth talking about he hadn't left the church he's still in the choir demons is still ushering demons are still conducting service demons he's still there he's playing the instruments but that's all the kingdom isn't benefited because of him luke the beloved the physician is here and demons we hear nothing there's no word of his loyalty and his passion he's lost that his service is a shell of what it used to be or if you're just looking for him you can find him he's still still over there still doing stuff but that's it and demons can't really say he's faithful and demons oh he ain't talking to nobody about the lord he ain't witnessing he don't even pray you can tell because his attitude is worse than it used to be yeah ending us there's nothing else you can say about him he's just from my fellow libra to endemus he's falling paul sees it but i wonder if he recognized it what are you getting on me for pastor i'm at church now what are you talking about but your heart i'm still directing the crowd i'm still over over this like but your heart and and and you may be fooling yourself but paul said they must may not know exactly what but something's different and famous saint luke 9 62 says and no man that put his hand to the plow and looks back as fit for the kingdom since we know the end of the story i dare say at this point even though he hadn't gone back yet maybe in his heart he'd already started looking back you can start to see when people's passion for the things of god takes a hit because they'll still do some stuff but it's no longer effective they're just doing it for the sake of doing it you see it where they where they used to sing for the glory of god and you know when they got up they would just sit there and it took them five minutes to start singing because they praying lord please take over hide me behind the cross let no flesh get in the glory in that same and they lit their head and started singing close their eyes and and you could just see the passion on them they weren't trying to be professional they just wanted god to use them now you can call them to sing and act like you bothering them hit it what happened to to the passion everybody else can see it you think i got up there and i said oh i just sung the other night yeah but everybody else knows even if they don't know what it is it's something something different it's not that you're judging people but have you ever had that experience where you're just something different just i can't put my feet on it i ain't saying nobody backs and it's not be judging it's just the fact that i remember when you were on fire i remember when when people left church talking about how you let god use you and how god came in and took your gift and blessed the whole house i remember nobody's charging but we were there we know what he did through you and now you get nothing and you think you're going to kill a whole church and demons can't say nothing because something's different and finally second timothy 4 and 10 we hear the devastating news we have gone from demons being this fellow laborer he works just like i work he's in it just like me helping me to show to the lord then we saw endemus something's missing and now paul says demons is gone why did he leave paul well what happened to demons i was just there last year's convocation demons was there theme was was that watch night dave what happened famous just got through speaking at the evangelistic how poor what are you demons is god what happened to damas paul said i'll tell you he loved this present world this is where you better be careful love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him what is it in the world that got demons his attention it's the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes the pride of life he loved the world sitting up trying to work in church still in love with the world maybe paul started seeing some things i don't know maybe a few little things start slipping in and he hadn't really gone all the way out yet but maybe paul was scared to brag on him because he saw the trend man and now he says oh no he gone i don't know whether demons left a letter or not because you know now people just leave they don't say nothing you just they come out on facebook y'all getting quiet you thought you thought they were still safe you thought they were still holding until they post a picture that's their way of letting all y'all know they want to blast the saints stay out of my inbox y'all just junky y'all just know that y'all just want to know what's going on keep your fake concern to yourself mm-hmm demas is gone because he loved this present world he had a golden opportunity could have served the lord look at the work he could have done but he loved the world his heart was more connected to the world than it was to the work of the lord and finally he could hide it for a while but in the end it's gonna tell off on you in the end everybody's gonna know you can think it for a while and sooner or later it'll stop making sense to you god i don't know why i'm still going now keep on talking don't sound like nothing like the testimony you gave just a few months back keep talking and just tell them the truth that i'm gone not because i moved to another country not because i have a legitimate reason just because demons love this present world and i wonder why was paul so anxious for mark to come he said listen i need you bring him bring him i need him why would he say that right around the fact that he talked about maybe demons was was important to the cause and now he left some work undone and it's hard enough seeing somebody turn back on god but then when they were so so important to the cause and they just dropped all that responsibility it's hard when damas was so connected and he was so so vital to the operation now he's gone and you're looking for somebody else you can help call in to help you out come do this something's been left undone because because demons decided he didn't have what it took to finish demons demons stand until you fear demons that's all i could tell you tonight started out good lost that in the end tonight what we need most is to make sure that we're sold out doesn't matter what work you do if you're not sold out you don't care about abandoning your post you don't care about that folks looking at you you don't care after a while it's just a spirit of carelessness you don't care about nothing you used to realize all them little kids that spoke to you when they walked by your seat and you very conscious of the fact man they must look up to me i don't want to do nothing to lead them wrong and encourage these little kids and you were mindful of what you did and how you looked and what you said because you didn't want to mess them up now your heart ain't here no more it ain't in the kingdom anymore not at church the kingdom now you don't care all of them used to look up to you and now you're just doing stuff if they take from your bad example and be bad just like you you don't care your heart ain't in it i wonder if demons ever got it right did he ever come to the point of saying and i remember when god used to use me was he ever even in his unregenerate state sitting around the table one day and said man i remember this one time we was on this missionary journey then it's heartbreaking and i remember one time i was with paul and man paul did this paul did i wonder did he ever come to a point of missing how god used to use him what god did through him how god reached out and touched somebody's heart through his word i wonder did he ever miss being used by god to the point that it brought him back don't know i don't know all i know is that it's a sad narrative that there was somebody so blessed with the greatest honor of being used by god to over time start to slide so slowly but so consistently that one day he looked up and he was no longer in the kingdom he's gone because he loved this present world somebody needs to check your heart femus demons maybe you're still in colossians you haven't got the second timothy yet maybe right now you'd steal endemus nothing significant to be said for your service at all but at least he hasn't made the declaration that you've forsaken him somebody may need to to strengthen your foundation sure it up i want you to come everything bad every eye close somebody tonight i want you to come it's so much to this a great start a lot of people have started running they hear the gun fire off and they heard the referee cry on your mark get set then he squeezed that starting trigger and they took off with a blaze of glory oh it looked like they were going to win it but here come the hurdles they hit the first one slowed them down couldn't get their footing the stride and the rhythm all messed up now they just hit every hurdle until finally they heard of trips um they they stumbling they hit the ground and the race is so lost they don't run anymore just get up and roll off the track maybe you started out in a blaze of glory maybe you hit some hurdles but tonight you can come i'm calling if there's somebody else here tonight maybe you're not saved you don't know the lord and the pardon of your sin i want you to come god can use you and maybe you walked away but tonight you can get back on track he's faithful he's just to forgive us of all of our sins ever just would you go in and pray tonight those of you some want to be reclaimed some want to come back to the lord and pray for each and every need and would you at your seat pray with these [Music] hallelujah hallelujah do it lord oh come on that's it that's it [Music] hallelujah that's it yes lord [Music] hallelujah do it for him jesus [Music] fully committed to you [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] and for the rest of my life [Applause] oh yes i am [Music] i'm not gonna turn [Music] [Music] i'm gonna hold up [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: IFP TV

Views: 949

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: zwy12VpeKg4

Length: 101min 41sec (6101 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021